Ugliness
by ClaireKin
Summary: A year has passed since graduation when Rory initiates contact with Logan to try to apologize and explain. She was not prepared for a face-to-face meeting, nor the aftermath that followed. COMPLETE
1. New York

_**This is an excerpt from a larger, slightly AU Gilmore Girls story I did which I thought might be a decent one shot. Reviews are appreciated, but I only hope you enjoy.**_

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She owed him an explanation. She knew she did. And maybe she was writing it for herself, too. she needed to know what made her say 'no' to him in that instant, when she was choosing between them and herself. she hadn't really thought it out, had replied with her gut. How after all they had been through together, living together, waiting for each other, maturing together, when he did the right, sweet, and romantic thing, she had rebuffed him unceremoniously and without thinking twice.

_Dear Logan,_

It already sounded impersonal and she hated it. She kept it anyway.

_Dear Logan,_

_ I'm on the tour bus of Barack Obama's campaign and thrilled to be covering something so legendary. It's what I wanted, what I needed, and the reason I turned you down. An abrupt way of beginning this letter, I know, but I needed to tell you exactly what this letter will contain. I'm not sure yet that I'm sending it to you. I'm writing it for myself. And perhaps if I am honest with myself here, you will get some understanding and comfort, as well._

_ I met Dean as a child. He loved me fiercely and I knew I should love him. I was a writer, and passionate, and curious. He wasn't. He was always going to be the good, reliable, sweet man that he was as a boy and I could never bring myself to crave him. Jess came into my life and flipped me upside down, turned me inside out, and ripped me to pieces. I loved him until I ached, broke, and eventually lost some of that fire he unashamedly aroused in me. And while I didn't lose my body to him first, or ever, he took my heart._

_ Dean. Good, sweet Dean. I cannot bring myself to describe him any other way. He'll make a good, sweet woman very happy. You think perhaps that's me. It isn't. Jess came to visit me at the dorm. Dean had driven me home from a lame party where my ride was drunk and, oddly enough, stepped aside to let me speak to Jess. I saw the clenching of his fist, the tightening of his jaw. Dean was a married man but old rivalries die hard. Jess was livid to see Dean with me. But this was when Jess asked me to run away with him. We'll write and work and make love and see the country or the world._

_ I sent him packing, angrily. He had always been so selfish, wanting to drag me back next to him and shoving me hard away from him whenever I got there. I decided then and there to no longer wait for love. I lost my virginity to Dean and we continued our affair for a long enough time that I began to wonder if I loved him again. I was jealous when he'd go home to his wife and he made incredible excuses to sneak back to see me at Yale when I returned to school. I broke up his marriage. I'm not proud of it. But perhaps what I'm least proud of is how I broke his heart and took him for granted when he returned to me after his divorce._

_ You know this part. I had already met you and begun flirting. Dean returned to me and I pretended we'd been together all along - that phantom boyfriend you always harangued me about not existing. I was distracted from good, sweet Dean again. The passion was gone. Dean by himself wasn't much for me. Married Dean was. The affair was exciting. Dean alone had too little excitement to offer. And I was always the good girl. I no longer wanted to be._

_ So I flirted with you, with alcohol, with money, and with irresponsibility. I lost. I broke up Dean's marriage and cruelly neglected him until he finally left, wondering where the girl was that he had fallen in love with. I didn't know that girl anymore. I didn't know who I was at all. _

_ Perhaps the best explanation I can give you, by way of an analogy, is when Dean was walking away from me in my grandmother's driveway, and you looped your arm around my neck and pulled me back into that life. I left Stars Hollow, not just Dean, in that moment. There was no breathing room. I went straight from Dean to Jess to Dean to you almost to Jess to you then away._

_ I had them all figured out. Dean was always chasing me, and Jess was always running backwards, egging me towards him but always running faster away from me. You? I didn't know what you were. You allowed me to be wrong, to be childish, to be angry, to be sulky, to be mean. You allowed me to do all the things that I had never been allowed to do. Mom wouldn't let me, though she always wanted to say she would understand. And I know that part of it was because I was her daughter and she didn't want me to make those mistakes. But more of it was her absolute terror that I would turn out like her. She never thought who she had become was good enough for me and I admire that about her, but she did me a disservice. I ended up hitting adolescence when I was 20 instead of 16, like everyone else. And you were okay with all of it. You were okay with me when I was drunk, when I was academic, when I was slacking, when I was studious. You were okay with all of it._

_ We made it through the breakups. We made it through you leaving me. We made it through my waiting for you. We made it through living together. We made it through my mother hating you. We made it through my grandparents' dinners. We made it through graduation. But we didn't make it through the engagement._

_ I wasn't ready, my dear, dear Logan. I'm 23 now and wondering if I am yet. I don't think so. I can love someone. That's no problem. But I needed to find myself first. I needed to be my own person before I became subject to the pressures of being part of someone else. It's been a year. I wonder if you think about it at all or if you even care. I want you to know that I do think about it and I still wonder sometimes what my life would be like if I had agreed to marry you. I was angry at you for a long time. I was angry that you felt you loved me enough to propose you spend your life with me when you didn't love me enough to wait until I would say yes. It confirmed for me that we weren't ready. Neither of us._

_ You provoked me into figuring out who I was and I'm sorry, so very sorry, that it backfired on you. You wouldn't have liked finding out years later that we were wrong for each other so it's the lesser of the evils. You'll find someone else. I've no doubt you have already. I haven't. But I don't want to. And it seemed as though all your years of hell raising and trysts had prepared you to want for a reciprocal love in a way that my goody-two-shoes upbringing had not._

_ I don't know that you'll answer this. Or read it, for that matter. But if you want to, I can be emailed. My mother gets all my mail since I'm on the road but I know how you feel about the possible invasion of privacy. I wanted to tell you of my gratitude for pushing me into nothing, for allowing me to be myself and enjoying every part of it. You're the only person I ever met who never asked anything of me except once, and I turned you down for it. You were instrumental and vital for my growth as a woman and a writer. You gave me acceptance of myself in a way so few ever have - unconditionally. I owe you so much and perhaps an explanation of how we got to where we did is where I can begin to repay you._

_ I did love you passionately and you were good for me. I wish I could have returned the favor. Never doubt that I wanted to be able to have you for always. I simply couldn't. I hope you find some closure in this letter and if I've only opened a wound you'd healed, I apologize for that, too._

_With affection,_

_Rory Ace Gilmore_

Mailing the letter was difficult but it had come out all at once, so she assumed it was going to sound unrehearsed and unplanned and, thus, as genuine as it was. She didn't want it to sound like a story she had researched and outlined before writing. She wanted him to know how he had changed her life and she loved him for what he had been to her. What she hadn't prepared herself for was his arriving at an Obama campaign rally in New York the following week and finding his way in the press crowd to her.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, hand on heart. Being started by a sudden presence had nothing on the fright of meeting his eyes.

"I got your letter."

"Didn't you though?" she responded somewhat sarcastically. "You know, this area is only for press."

He said nothing, merely shook his one of his father's paper's press badge at her. She turned purposefully and faced the stage, notebook in hand. But she kept a watch on him out of the corner of her eye. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his feet, almost as though he were whistling casually on a warm summer day on a front porch in 1952. She wanted to kill him. But it was good to see him again. He had grown, she had grown. But they were still both kids. He 25, she 23. She had no more idea what she wanted now than she did then. She'd only had more time to experience not knowing what she wanted, which was almost as important as actually accomplishing something.

"You should have a drink with me."

"Okay."

"Now."

"Give it a few."

"Right after?"

"Sure."

"I'll see you in the lobby bar."

It was that simple. Hit and run. She looked at his back, ever swaggering, as he quietly departed the crowd. They made room for him, as if knowing that he was one day going to be a great man and they just ought to get use to getting out of his way. She knew it, too. And rushed to his side again before he could change his mind.

"You were supposed to be the heir," she said quietly when she found him in the bar. "And I the newspaper journalist."

"So we were, and so we are."

"We're not," she protested.

"You're a journalist."

"Thanks to my grandparents' generosity," Rory replied. "And you're a journalist, too."

"Ah, no, I stole a press badge," he said. "That's different."

At that moment, her drink arrived without being bidden. She watched, in amazement, as her ESB beer was passed to Logan, then to her hands. She held it, somewhat dumbfounded, as he paid for it, obviously tipping too much. He wouldn't deign to ask if it was the right thing to get her. He already knew. He had known exactly what he was doing when he showed up and he had a plan. She realized that all of a sudden and knew this would be a game of cat and mouse. She'd have to be alert.

"Are you upset because we lived up to everyone's expectations of us?" Logan asked. "We both have families with money. We're both smart. You run news really well, I run businesses very well."

"Logan."

"You look great," he said quietly. "It's good to see you."

She smiled and started readying to sit at the stool next to him. "Thank you, it's -"

"I still love you."

She paused, midway to sitting down next to him, and figured she ought to finish the gesture. "Excuse me?"

"I haven't found anyone else," he said. "I couldn't, not even when I wanted to. And, believe me, I tried. And I wanted to. But, you know, first love, all that. You know, I used to think it was my ego, maybe I was just upset that I told you I could be a great boyfriend and I wasn't. So maybe I felt like there was unfinished business."

"You *were* a great boyfriend."

"No I wasn't," he replied. "I pressured you, cheated on you, left you repeatedly, and blocked your access to the real me as long as I could stand it."

"Well, sure, but - "

"I don't wonder why you said no, Rory," Logan said. "I wonder, actually, why I asked. I knew what your answer should be. If you were any woman I had any interest in marrying, your answer would be no. And before you say it, no, this isn't a case of me not wanting to belong to any club that would accept me as a member. If you'd said yes to me then, I'd never know that you were saying it as a grown woman with your own heart and your own mind and that would torture me."

"Okay -"

"Not to mention, Jess."

She choked. "What?"

"You obviously were unsettled about him."

"Well, he was in the habit of leaving me right as I was about to think I might love him," Rory said. "It'll always be unfinished business, but it doesn't mean I pursue finishing it."

"Yeah, but when we were both angry at each other, you went after him."

"Because he was walking out," Rory defended herself. "And I'd be going home with you."

"You didn't," Logan said. "I left you there. Without a ride. Hoping you'd get in his car and I'd get to catch you. But I didn't. I watched you get a cab by yourself and I felt awful about leaving you there. It's what I get for trying to set you up. See? Now you don't think I'm a nice person."

"I don't - "

"I'm not a nice person."

"I kind of picked up on that," Rory said, and held up her hand to his face when he opened his mouth. "Stop interrupting me."

"If I don't, I'll never get out what you need to hear," he said.

"I think I've heard it," Rory said. "You still love me, you wonder why you asked me to marry you knowing I couldn't, and you think I have unsettled business with my high school boyfriend, am I getting close?"

"No," Logan said. "Your high school boyfriend was Dean. You fucked him, broke up his marriage, had him, and found him boring. You're done with him. That was your high school boyfriend. Jess was your first love. That's a lot harder to get rid of. And that's what's hard."

Rory swallowed the anger and denial. "What?"

"You're my first," Logan said. "So I know what it feels like to try to finish your feelings about your first. But I'm not your first. So I can only imagine what you're going through in trying to get over the guy who would be great, if only he would be reliable."

Rory hung her head as he sarcastically crossed his fingers and threw innocent eyes to the ceiling. His satire not lost on her, she managed to face him again and drew strength from herself to answer.

"I loved him," she said. "And he loved me. But never, ever enough. Get over it. The rest of us did."

"He didn't."

"Logan - "

"Did you get over him?" Logan asked. "If he showed up today instead of me, would you have met him? Or would you have said, no, my heart belongs to someone else? Or, no, I couldn't love you anyway so there's no point?"

"Logan -"

"Dangerous questions, I know," he answered. "Or would you have said you'd only been waiting for him to come to his senses? Would you have said you didn't know why he didn't love you enough to stick around?"

"You jackass," she hissed angrily. This got him to pause. "I asked you repeatedly why you didn't love me enough to stick around and you want to throw in my face someone else who didn't? Someone else who didn't stick around before you didn't?"

She rose from her barstool and before he had a chance to stop her she had vacated the bar. Any confrontation with Logan that she had imagined, she had not figured would go that way. He would not be jealous, he would not want to spend more time talking to her about her flaws, he would not want to think she deserved 'a good talking to'. He followed her out of the bar and she felt herself impervious to any further provocation because she was too angry to speak or even see.

"I loved you!" he shouted at her as they both hurriedly walked down the sidewalk.

"Am I supposed to care?" she returned loudly, whirling around to face him. He stopped short and they allowed the others to filter between them in their pedestrian traffic patterns before coming together, he pulling her to the side to speak.

"You are."

"Why?" she demanded. "You left me. You love me enough to spend your life with me but not enough to ensure that it's the right decision for both of us? I could KILL you. You think that didn't hurt? I lived with you and loved you and made love to you every night and had to tell you that I wasn't sure I was doing it for any reason other than the present. And however hard that was for you to hear, it was 10 times harder to say. I had to tell you that I was human, and growing, and flawed."

"And I heard that you wanted your options wide open," Logan scathed. "Meaning Jess. You didn't know where your life was going - "

"Get this argument off my ex boyfriend," Rory demanded with grit teeth.

"I can't," Logan spat back. "He was always fucking THERE."

They realized they had drawn some attention and stopped speaking, waiting for a few groups to pass them before looking at each other again. There was guilt in both sets of eyes and anger, too. How to deal with both? After this experience, they would know.

"Do you want him to come back?" Logan asked. "Did you want me to come back? Do you love either of us? Both of us?"

"I think it's ridiculous that I contacted you and all we're talking about is someone I've never even slept with!"

"But you loved him," Logan said. "So who cares if you never slept with him? What did you feel the last time you kissed him, but pushed him off because you felt loyalty to me? Don't deny it. You must've. Anyone would've."

"Logan - "

"I'm dating someone right now," Logan said. "And if you walked up to me, said you loved me, and kissed me, I'd never push you away. Who cares if I'm dating someone else? You're my Rory. I'm not letting you go. So I imagine you feel the same way about Jess. Unfortunately, now that I know what it's like to not be with someone you love that use to be yours, I can suddenly understand what you were going through with Jess."

"Oh my fucking God, would you stop talking about it already?" Rory complained, not wanting to admit how jealous she was of the idea that he was with someone else right now. That he might sneak away from some other woman in order to see her was flattering and infuriating all at once. Not that she had any room to speak. No. After all, she was engaged in a regular casual affair with one of her co-workers.

"Why did you write to me?" Logan asked. "Why did you drag all this back up again?"

"First, I hadn't invited a face to face conversation about it, but you're owed one, sure," Rory said. "Secondly, I knew you were owed an explanation and I finally felt brave enough to write it. I didn't know whether or not you'd want to receive it, but if the roles were reversed, I would have wanted to get the letter, so I took my chances."

"It's not because you want to get back together, or because you feel guilty for being with someone else?"

Rory sighed.

"Forgive me for asking, but you sent this to me in New York the week before you were going to be here," Logan said. "And you had to know I'd figure out that you were in New York with the campaign and come see you."

"I didn't actually," Rory said. "Although you're right, I probably should've counted on it."

Logan moved closer to her. "It was my first instinct to kiss you as soon as I saw you," he said softly, looking at her. "I was half expecting you to run to me and jump into a hug with me like you always did when I returned home after being away a few days."

"We aren't those people anymore, Logan," Rory replied. "That was college."

"I know," Logan answered. "But I don't like it. I want you here, with me, in my bed."

"You're with someone now, Logan," Rory said, taking half a step back.

"I'd break up with her in a heartbeat," Logan said. "If you were an option, I'd break up with her."

"Here's where you and I are very different, Logan," Rory said. "If I would be willing to break up with my boyfriend for an old flame, I'd have never begun a relationship with him in the first place because I'd know I wasn't ready to."

Logan nodded pensively and gave her a studied look. "You're hinting at me about Jess."

"And not very subtly," Rory said.

"Did you love me?" Logan asked quietly, seriously.

"Very, very much," she answered truthfully.

"Do you still?" Logan asked the question she knew was coming next.

"Sometimes I think I do," Rory said. "But now I'm so angry at you for walking away from me. And I'm on the road. I'm even less willing to get into a stated commitment than I was before. And let me remind you that it wasn't commitment I was backing away from, merely saying I would marry you. I was too young! I'm still too young!"

"But I knew, I knew that it was you for me so I asked you to make sure it stayed that way," Logan said. "You didn't know the same about me. How do you think I felt about that?"

"That you ought to be grateful I wouldn't make the mistake of letting my emotions get in the way of my good sense!" Rory said. "I wasn't ready to marry you and I understand that it's hurtful but I couldn't say yes and I shouldn't be punished for that! I didn't want to break up, I wanted to stay with you, but I just wasn't ready to agree to the rest of my life yet."

"Was I supposed to stay after you said no?" Logan asked. "How was I going to do that?"

"I don't know, Logan," Rory said with a small sigh. "The same way you wanted me to marry you. I imagine all those reasons apply to why you'd want to stay."

Logan gave her a prolonged look and seemed to resolve to something. "I wasn't here."

"What?" Rory asked. "What do you mean?"

"I wasn't in New York when your letter came," Logan said. "I knew you were with the Obama campaign and it would be in New York soon, then I got a list of people who had mailed me from my secretary and I flew back here to read it. And to see you. I was in San Francisco. My girlfriend doesn't even know I'm back in town. I'm splitting my time between here and there."

Rory didn't know what to say to that and so said nothing. Was thanking him for it appropriate? Couldn't possibly be.

"You wouldn't be with me right now, you say?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head. "I'm on the road, and you and I haven't even spoken in over a year."

"Can we stay in touch?"

"Should we?" Rory asked. "You have a girlfriend."

Logan shrugged. "I'll break up with her," he answered simply.

"Don't do that, not for thinking you and I have a chance," Rory said.

"I choose staying in touch with you over continuing to waste her time," Logan said. "I'll never love her, and she wants me to. I should let her go anyway."

Rory didn't want to point out that he should have done that a while ago, and that her re-entering his life was not her intention in writing him. But he pulled her into his arms and gave her a solid kiss before she could say anything at all. It was the kind of kiss she remembered that he used to give when he saw her after a trip. Furious, passionate, sure. He expressed a hint of desperation this time, however. and it wasn't until she began to return the kiss that he finally relaxed. He brought her even closer and deepened the kiss, his mouth warm and his hands burning through her clothes onto her skin. Theirs had been an explosive sexual relationship and as she kissed him, she knew it would be even better now. Now they were older, had more experience....

_Don't think that way,_ she chided herself.

He felt her hesitation and whereas the old Logan would have only pulled her closer, he let her go. She panted a bit and her eyes were wide, glassy as she gazed up at him. This was pleasing to him and he took on a smirk that she had sorely missed. She straightened immediately a bit defensively as she realized that grown up Logan didn't want her to act on her passion as much as he wanted her to unabashedly show it. Logan was a bit more of a man with a bit more patience. He wanted her to be unable to hide her want for him even more than he wanted her to give in to it. He perhaps wanted to control it, having felt so rejected by her before.

"Come home with me, Rory," Logan whispered. "I've already begged for you, and I'm not a man accustomed to begging. But the look in your eyes when I was done kissing you is all the reward I could want for it."

"We're still kids, Logan," she said quietly.

"I know," Logan said. "I'm asking you to come home and make a mistake with me. Nothing more."

"Your girlfriend - "

"I"ll break up with her on the way over if it makes you feel better."

"Oh my God, no," Rory said, mortified. "You should at least take her to dinner or something."

"Would you let me worry about it?" Logan asked. "You can't tell me you don't want to."

She couldn't.

"Are you seeing someone?" he dared to inquire after realizing it was possible she felt loyalty to someone else.

"Not exclusively," Rory said. "It's openly casual."

His eyes darkened and she could tell he wanted to not hear that answer. "Are you going to tell him about me?"

"He has no reason to know anything," she replied.

"Then what's the problem?" Logan said, shifting so his body was only an inch away from hers. "Do you have to go back to work?"

"Not until tomorrow," she answered.

"I want to taste you again," he gruffly whispered in her ear. "I want to kiss my way down your breasts, your stomach, up your thighs.'

"Logan," she whispered.

"Come home with me," he persuaded. "I'm asking nothing of you."

She felt his finger apply pressure subtly at the apex of her thighs and she gasped, leaning her head on him at the sudden pressure where she was so swollen, heated, and pulsing. She knew he felt the heat radiating, even through the fabric of her skirt, and the open lust on his face when she dared meet his eyes confirmed it.

"You want me."

"Alright, let's go," Rory agreed, that one touch setting her beyond where she wanted to stop. "Let's get a cab."

"My driver's right here," Logan said.

_Of course he is._

His apartment had no signs of a girlfriend - nothing in the bathroom, nothing in the bedroom. Rory comforted herself with the idea that this must not be a serious girlfriend if there wasn't even an extra toothbrush in the bathroom. She felt bad for the poor girl. No doubt, she had no idea what she was getting in Logan Huntzberger. Rory hadn't had any idea. She suddenly flashed back to when he had cheated on her in a scenario fairly similar to this but she pushed the thought away.

She was glad they hadn't lived in this apartment together. She wouldn't be able to return to the apartment in which she use to live with him in order to have a casual encounter with him. It would be too painful. Although this was the apartment he'd had when they were dating, and when they would end up in New York together, this is where they stayed. How could he still live here without her things there? It was hard for her to listen to the same music he liked for a long time. After Jess, she had avoided whole authors and genres simply because they had meant something to him. After Dean, she couldn't see anything hockey-related for years.

She was thinking too much for what was about to happen. She had gone to the bathroom on the pretense of using it, but had really only needed a moment to look herself in the eye and be certain this was a mistake she wanted to make. When she walked out of the bathroom, he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. She had opened the door quietly and she wasn't even sure he knew that she was there. But he looked up moments later and she knew he had only been debating whether or not he could afford to make eye contact with her. There was a look of absolute torture on his face and her heart rushed to her stomach.

"Logan, what - "

"I can't," he said, his eyes turning red. "Because I'd want you to stay."

She couldn't speak. When had she hurt him this much? When had she taken Logan Huntzberger to his knees? When they had agreed to be exclusive, he'd had Cassandra waiting on the phone and a lunch date outside his door in the hallway. She had wrecked him.

"It'd be easy for you to leave and I'd just get set further back," Logan said. He laughed back a frog in his throat. "You've made a mess of me, Ace."

His voice cracked in calling her Ace and it's also what set her eyes to watering. He turned his face to the floor and leaned over his own lap, his elbows on his knees as he refused to look at anything but the floor. She stayed in the bathroom doorway, hardly knowing what to do or where to go. Stay? Leave? Which would make this better for them? She should never have contacted him. Her letter was accusatory, as though they could have stayed together and made it work if only he hadn't pushed her to answer. But, well, that was how she felt. How could she pretend she didn't feel that way? Except she realized suddenly why leaving her was easier than staying with her and doubting her. He *loved* her.

"You can't do this with me, can you?" Logan asked.

She cleared her throat and steadied her voice as much as she could. "Do what?"

"This," Logan said, gesturing between them as he finally managed to meet her eyes again. "Heal this. Fix this. Become this again."

"I should leave, shouldn't I?" Rory asked quietly.

This seemed even more upsetting to him and she bit her lower lip. She had seen Dean hurt, Jess angry, but never had she seen a man broken because of her before. Logan was not okay. He was still mourning the end of his relationship with her just over a year ago.

"Can we talk again when the campaign is over?" Logan asked. "That's 6 months. We'll have gotten to know each other again. You'll have to decide on somewhere to live. Who knows? Maybe you'll pick San Francisco or New York."

"I can't make any promises to you, Logan," Rory said. "I can't surrender my life to yours."

"I'll surrender mine to yours, then."

"Couldn't it be something in the middle?"

"Isn't it worth talking about to see if we could find that?" Logan asked.

"It wasn't ever me who didn't want to find that happy medium," Rory answered, and immediately wished she had bitten her tongue. For all her heartache in their breakup, she hadn't experienced nearly what Logan was going through now. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's honest," Logan said. "And it's accurate."

"I know why you left," Rory said, stepping closer to where he sat on the bed. "I'm mad about it because I didn't have a choice in any of it. Not because you did it."

"Most of a relationship is a mutual decision-making process," Logan said. "The break-up rarely is."

He reached for her and she closed the final two step distance between them to her hand in his. He looked at her hand, much smaller, in his and smiled slightly before tugging. She stepped up onto the dais that his bed rested on until she stood right in front of him. He put his arms around her waist as she stood between his legs, his face against her stomach. She embraced his head and ran her hand across his shoulders. He was so warm, so *Logan*. Such a romantic boy, such a charming, handsome man. He had always been big man on campus but he had never been that with her after deciding that he was going to be her boyfriend. It had only been a year since breaking up. Why did they feel so old?

His hands roamed across her back, rubbing gently. It felt amazing. His hands slipped down, molding around the shape of her bottom on his way to the backs of her thighs. She clutched her fingers in his hair a little bit tighter as he toyed with the skin at the line of her skirt. He slid a bit further up her thigh and she held her breath as he neared his destination. His fingernail dragged across the seam around her thighs from front to back as she sucked in a desperate breath.

"Logan."

He pressed a finger against the moist cloth of her panties and she felt her knees weaken. He very suddenly had shifted her panties aside and inserted his finger inside her. She cried out a little and he gripped her buttocks firmly in his hand, both supporting her and holding her still. He made certain she had a hold of him as his finger massaged her, his thumb on her clit as his middle finger was absorbed by the ridiculous heat of her. He let go of her rump and unfastened her skirt. He removed his hand from her, eliciting a cry of anger against him as he let her skirt fall around her ankles. He pulled her panties down to her ankles and knelt on the floor in front of her, pushed his face against her and returning his finger inside of her as his tongue tasted her again as he had told her he had so desperately wanted to.

She came almost immediately. His teeth lightly grazed her clitoris before his tongue pressed against her, his finger stroking her, and she would have fallen to her knees had he not been holding her up. Blindingly, she burst from the inside out and he felt the warm surge, the fresh scent of her womanhood, and felt her tremble weakly in his arms until he picked her up, guiding her to his bed. He laid her back, removing the last of her clothes as he did. As she pulled off her bra and discarded it, he stood at the foot of his bed and took in the sight of her. She was naked, toned, flushed with the orgasm he'd just given her, and her breasts, already swollen and attentive, heaved with lust both satiated and insatiable.

"You're wearing all your clothes," she said, pulling in air desperately.

"You have the longest, most beautiful legs," Logan said, running his hands up her legs. She trembled under the touch, under his attentive stare. He had never seen her like this before. Or perhaps he'd never looked at her like this before.

"I want you naked."

Logan chuckled, feeling a rush of joy that he hadn't feel in a long time. He pulled his shirt off and began unbuckling his jeans as he pushed off his shoes. She watched him openly, admiring the lean carvings of his 25 year old muscles. A boy, a man, something in between. He wasn't quite grown up, not quite a boy still. He had the charm of both and the trappings of both but was some strange hybrid in between.

"Okay, okay."

"I'm on the pill."

"You're so pragmatic," Logan said, chuckling at her just a little. "It's so sexy."

"Oh, shut up. Come here."

"I'm not going to last very long, Rory," Logan said as he began to crawl over her body. He took her breast into his mouth the best he could and inhaled the scent of her, the sweat from her orgasm purely of a woman ready to accept a man.

"Not the first time, sure," Rory said coyly, insinuating the promise of more.

They made love, they fucked, they had sex, they rocked, they wrestled, and they exhausted their bodies until they couldn't fathom what else to do to or for each other. After seven hours, she pulled herself near his side, not daring to touch for they were both so hot, so sweaty, that they needed air circulating around them to cool down. Their skin was red and flushed, their body exhausted, their week's worth of eating burned in this single session. She had lost track of time - it was almost 11pm. She touched her fingernails to his skin and travelled the length of his torso as he fought off the burning urge to sleep.

"I don't want to go to sleep," Logan whispered, forcing his eyes open. He turned his head to face her. "You're so beautiful. I wish I'd spent more of this time talking to you."

"We had a year of that pent up," Rory said, smiling.

Logan studied her face a moment and a touch of a frown hinted at his lips. "You're trying to figure out how to say you have to leave."

How in the hell did he do that?

"The caravan leaves at 6am," she answered quietly. "If they don't see me in the hotel tonight, they'll assume I'm abandoning ship."

Logan frowned. "You can't sleep here?"

It was what they thought. He didn't want her to go. And truth be told, she didn't want to go either. If her schedule was open, she'd be here for the next several days, doing nothing but abandoning all work, responsibility, and obligation.

"I don't want to go," Rory said, touching his face.

Logan raised himself to an elbow to watch her as she slid across the bed, reaching for her clothes. "Great ass, Rory, seriously."

She chuckled and tried to not feel self-conscious about him looking at her. "Thanks?"

"Was this break up sex to you, Rory?" Logan asked. "Or make up sex?"

It was an interesting way of posing a question where the only answers could be A or B. She hated how he did that. She clasped her bra on and turned to look at him. Sexy, worried, and hot with his efforts at bringing her to the edge of sanity.

"Logan," she said quietly. "Please don't make everything a multiple choice question."

"Essay exams, only?"

She smiled sadly and turned away to take her shirt from the floor. He was struggling with what to do with her, she knew that now. Walk away to save himself? Pursue her to save himself? His eyes burned through her and in that moment she felt more than she had felt during any moment of their 7 hours in bed together. She leaped across the bed and straddled his lap, the sheets and her clothes separating their bodies but the warmth there all the same. He wrapped his arms around her and she nuzzled his face into his neck.

"Multiple choice question," Rory said into his neck. "Do I still love you? Yes, absolutely, I love you."

He squeezed her so tightly it almost hurt. He rolled until she was beneath him again and he kissed her soundly. "I love you, too, Rory."

"I'll see you again."

"Will you?"

"Yes."

"But you make no promises that it's make-up sex?"

Rory smiled that he finally understood. "Essay exams. Life isn't multiple choice."

"It's not yes or no will you marry me," Logan said quietly, perusing her eyes for her reaction. "It should have opened a dialogue about it."

"You have to get rid of your girlfriend, Logan," Rory said softly.

"You have to get rid of your fuck buddy, Rory," he returned.

They measured each other up and Rory blinked first, shrugging. "It doesn't always have to be so ugly."

"I don't imagine it will be."

She sighed a little and rolled away from him. But she wasn't angry and made sure he knew it, giving him a kiss before moving off the bed. She gathered the rest of her things as he watched her drowsily. He took his comfort in her promise that they would speak again. Perhaps she would need the time to get herself together, They would probably need to figure out if this was really what they wanted but at the same time, they finally had confronted some of the ugly truths which had kept them apart to begin with. At least now they had something to work with.


	2. Stars Hollow

Going home to see her mom wasn't the same as it used to be. Mercifully, the campaign staff were granted furlough until January 7 as the transition staff took over. Rory found her way to Stars Hollow by way of airplane and bus, getting dropped off into town much as she use to every day from Chilton. So many years ago. Had it really been more than 5 years since she had graduated? Only a year and a half out of Yale and she had spent that time absorbed in covering one of the most historical elections in the country's history. The pressure on their first African American president's shoulders was huge. But Rory had been offered the opportunity to observe it by working in the White House. Having spent the past year and a half watching him, she felt inspired and the allure to be a part of such history was overwhelming.

Rory passed by the diner, which was being closed by Ceasar. She smiled to herself. Luke and her mother had promised to start being home more often. Their jobs as small business owners in the service industry could easily take over their whole lives but they wouldn't let it. When Luke had moved back in to Lorelai's house, Rory had been absolutely thrilled. The man who had been more of a father than her own had finally taken on the giant project that was Lorelai. He may not have asked about marriage again but who in the hell could blame him? He was dedicated to her all the same. He, grumpy Luke from Luke's Diner, had nested in her house. Lorelai told her daughter about it all the time, how he arranged things to suit them, and settled right in as though he had always lived there.

"He knows it's his," Lorelai had said in a hushed whisper over the phone, crouching in the closet so he couldn't hear her talking. "I'm so glad he knows it's all his."

Her mother was 40 and just now finding love, the true kind that she was going to keep. Rory hoped she could be so lucky to find it, although not so unlucky to be unable to know what to look for until she was much older.

The walk home didn't take too long. The 15 minutes gave her an opportunity to enjoy the crisp, cold night air that she hadn't had a chance to breathe, see, or hear for so long. She hadn't been to Stars Hollow for Christmas last year. Or any holiday. Her mother, in fact, wondered if Rory would make it back at all this year. She knew she was going to be really busy, had had no idea the paper would want her starting fresh with the new regiment in DC. DC! She hadn't considered living there before. London, yes. New York, yes. Traveling without a home? Yes. But not DC. She didn't plan on politics being her shtick as a journalist. International affairs was her thing. Semantics, perhaps, to some but not to her.

There was a faint light coming out of the house but Rory was quiet anyway as she entered. Just like Stars Hollow. No one locked their doors. It was as though because everyone in town was good, no one would possibly enter their town limits and hurt their goodness. They were Whoville. Rory had often though that. It's why they often felt as though Jess was their very own Grinch - he liked to dislike everything they held dear.

Jess? What? Where did that thought come from?

The light was coming from the kitchen but it seemed like the overhead stove light so she kept quiet, not wanting to wake anybody. But as soon as she rounded the corner to go through to the kitchen to her bedroom, she saw both Luke and Lorelai at the kitchen table. Hot beverages, hands intertwined, books and papers in front of them, they were a perfect picture of bliss. Only her movements got their notice - they were so engrossed in each other and the materials in front of them. As soon as they saw who it was, they both jumped up and all of a sudden she was wordlessly rushed by two sets of passionate, parental arms.

This is what it was like to have a mom and a dad, she realized as she hugged them. Yes, it felt good. It's no wonder people told her she had missed out on something by having only a mother. It felt good to have two people excited to see you. Her mom would never have thought to sew tents up all around the town square in order to continue to have an outdoor graduation party even though it was supposed to rain. Luke did that. And he was the one who got in all of her boyfriends' faces when they weren't doing well enough by her. She wanted to cry all of a sudden and merely gripped them tighter, opting to not do the childish thing and weep for the joy of parental presence that she had missed so sorely. She was 24. She shouldn't want for their attention so very desperately, and yet she was homesick for it.

"Rory!" Lorelai whispered, now having a chance to hug her all by herself now that Luke gave her the room to do so. "Oh, let me see you!" She pulled back and held her daughter's face in her hands before hugging her again. "Why didn't you tell us? We'd have picked you up."

"And spazzed out the entire time you knew I was coming," Rory said with a small smile. "I didn't tell you for both your sakes."

"Thank you," Luke said. "Good to see you, kiddo."

"You too," Rory replied with a smile.

"We have hot chocolate!" Lorelai exclaimed. "And I promise I didn't make it!"

Could Lorelai have chosen any man other than someone who knew how to cook? He cooked, he cleaned, he did yard work - all the things Lorelai wished she had her parents' money and lack of conscience in order to pay someone else to do. Not only did she not have to pay him to do these things, she once whispered in that closet again, but he did them for free AND he wanted to have sex with her on a regular basis, can you believe her luck?

Luke's was a quiet, peaceful strength and Rory had always felt as though he belonged in their family, even before he was a part of it. He'd been there for her, teaching her to drive a stick shift, shielding her from the boys who had loved her too much but not enough, and taking care of Lorelai when she was sick when Rory was too small to do so. The town had known about his protectiveness towards the Gilmore girls and surprisingly had never made it into something for the gossip mill, choosing to believe it for what it was - he liked them. He hadn't needed to be with Lorelai, he wasn't trying to usurp the family as his own. He simply liked them and felt protective of them and no one ever made that hard for them.

"If it's okay, I'm here until January 7," Rory said. "Well, before. I have some big decisions to make. But I can be here until around the New Year, if that's alright."

"Well, of course that's okay," Lorelai said. "Your room is always your room."

Rory smiled. "One of these days I should turn it into a grown-up room," she said as she went to drop her bags in there. "I'm a big kid now."

"Don't say such things around Mommy, it's very upsetting," Lorelai said.

"I'm going to get into some PJs, I'll be right out," Rory said.

Looking around her room was like a time warp. She had lived out of hotels without cessation for the past 18 months. Seeing her things, her sheets, her pictures, her teenage decorations was very strange. She smiled as she looked at the Yale banners on her cork board. For her entire life, she had insisted on going to Harvard. But when push came to shove, she had chosen Yale, causing a fight between her and Lorelai because she believed her daughter to be choosing Yale to please her grandparents, who were picking up the bill for school. To show that the fight was over, Lorelai had purchased Yale paraphernalia and used it to identically replace every piece of Harvard gift shop garbage that she had been worshipping all her life. It was one of many things in her room that had a long story to it. How had she forgotten what it felt like to be surrounded by nostalgia? She had missed it, truly.

Flannel pants and Logan's Yale hoodie later, she resumed her place in the kitchen with her mother and Luke. A mug of hot chocolate with dozens of mini marshmallows drowning in it was already waiting for her. Luke use to give Lorelai hell when she had asked for her hot chocolate to be made this way at the diner, saying something about food cost and rotting teeth. But he voluntarily did it now and she found it adorable.

"I have some big news," Lorelai said.

"Me too," Rory said. "You first."

Lorelai grinned. "Mine's going to win."

"It's not a contest, Mom."

"It is a contest, and I'm going to win," Lorelai said. "So I don't want to steal your thunder. You go first."

"Mine is going to prompt conversation and, I reiterate, it's not a contest," Rory said. "You can - "

"I'm pregnant," Lorelai said, grinning ear to ear. Only after the shrieking and the hugging did she get to say more.

"Congratulations, Luke!" Rory said, hugging him.

"It wasn't like I did anything special."

"Yes he did, he does this thing where - "

"Oh, no! No!" Rory and Luke both protested.

Lorelai laughed. "Can you believe that with a mind like mine, my body still allows me to create other life forms?"

"Your kids turn out okay," Luke said. "Even if they are spawns of Satan. I would otherwise not procreate with you."

"You'd sure try."

"Mom."

"I'm four months along," Lorelai said. "So I'll be popping sometime around tax day. I knew you were going to stop in sometime during the holiday so I wanted to wait to tell you in person. And we already know what the gender is."

"Do you?" Rory asked. "What is it?"

"They say it's a boy," Luke said.

"That's great!" Rory exclaimed.

She didn't want to mention that she was glad they weren't having a daughter. Luke had a 14 year old daughter in New Mexico he'd only just learned of 2 years ago and Chris, her father, had a daughter who was now 6 or 7. She didn't want to compete to be someone's daughter anymore. The same way Luke had felt slightly outcast when Christopher would sporadically return to Rory's life was the same she'd felt when finding out Luke had a daughter. Dysfunctional? Surely. But she had been raised as the center of her mother's world and it was not always easy for an only child to not only share her parents but to share with a same gendered sibling.

"We weren't trying," Lorelai said. "But we weren't *not* trying. If it happened, that's great. And if it didn't, that would be okay, too, we wouldn't go the radical route."

"We'll probably get married next summer," Luke said. "But I think we're all a little worried about the bad luck that surrounds any almost wedding of your mom's."

"Hey!" Lorelai protested.

"Got any names going yet?" Rory asked.

"Maybe," Lorelai said.

"No junior," Luke said, sending a pointed look at Lorelai.

"This is clearly a conversation that has happened already," Rory said with some amusement, watching her mother's innocent face. "What is your middle name?"

"That's why there's no junior," he replied.

Rory raised her eyebrows in curiosity and looked to her mother to spill it. "Hamilton."

"Lorelai," Luke said in a warning tone.

"Lucas Hamilton Danes," Rory recited back. "How pretentious."

"We were thinking Lucas as the middle name, first name to be determined," Lorelai said.

"I think that's sweet," Rory said with a smile.

"And you said you had news," Lorelai prompted her.

"Two sets, actually," she said. "The first being that, well, if it's alright with you, Logan will be joining us here and there while I'm staying with you."

Lorelai gave her daughter an interested look. "Are you back together?"

"I'm going to say yes," Rory replied. "We're still ironing out the details but we ran into each other a few months ago and decided to see what happened."

"You paused when you said 'ran into each other'!" Lorelai accused, pointing a finger.

"Yeah, I wrote him a letter, he flew from San Francisco to read it to where I mailed it in New York and stalked me to where I was working at an Obama rally," Rory said. "You know, ran into each other."

"This probably needs to be discussed when a male presence isn't here, doesn't it?" Lorelai asked.

"We were in bed for hours and hours, it was amazing."

"Okay, you two have a good night," Luke said, starting to stand up.

Rory grinned at Luke. "Sit, I want your advice on my next piece of news."

"Don't say things like that in my presence ever again," Luke warned, sitting back down.

"I've been offered a job as part of the White House press corp," Rory said.

"Whoa!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Congratulations! That's amazing!"

"Thank you," Rory said with a smile. "But, I'm not sure that I want to pigeon hole myself so early as a political correspondent. I don't know that it's what I want to do. I've wanted to be a world-traveling correspondent all my life."

"How many countries will you go to with the president?" Lorelai asked.

"All of them."

"How many have you been to with him so far?"

"Plenty."

"You already have this lifestyle," Lorelai said.

"It would require moving to Washington, DC," Rory said. "Where it's gross in the summer and traffic is dumb. It's really far from here - I'd only be able to visit occasionally. The hours would be bad and the fight for stories would be intense."

"Sounds right up your alley so far," Luke said.

"Yeah, but..." Rory said, thinking how to articulate. "I just don't know that I'm ready to settle in somewhere for 4 years, especially somewhere I've never spent a significant amount of time. How will I know if I like it? Besides, isn't it kind of strange that my life has been determined by groupings of 4 years at a time for the past 12 years?"

"You spent a whole summer there," Luke pointed out. "And you loved it."

"I did," Rory said. "But I was staying in a great house in the center of it all and I was blinded by celebrity while I was there. It was an experience which I'd fought for. This is a job."

"Are they going to pay you well enough to live comfortably?" Lorelai asked. "Or will you be living outside DC and spending all your time commuting from Virginia or Maryland? Because that's going to matter to your quality of life."

"We haven't talked about that yet," Rory said. "I'd get paid based on the cost of living of my town. The New York and San Francisco staff get paid more than the Kansas staff, for instance. If I could do it comfortably, I still don't know how I feel about it."

"It sounds like a great opportunity," Lorelai said. "What else do you have going?"

"That's the problem," Rory said. "Not much. But I haven't been trying. I've been so busy working that I haven't worked on progressing my career at all."

"Wait," Luke said. "That doesn't make any sense. Working too much to progress your career?"

"I know," Rory replied. "Whatever."

"Are you thinking about moving to San Francisco?" Lorelai asked quietly, knowing her daughter well.

"I don't want to consider it," Rory said. "I wouldn't agree to marry him because I didn't want to give up my life for his life. I actually feel as though I don't have enough options and I need to hurry up and find some before I make a decision about DC. I don't want to choose it because my alternative is San Francisco. The two of us are rarely in the same time zone, let alone the same room, so moving in with him when I don't have a job or friends would be absolutely crushing."

Lorelai nodded. "Yeah, probably."

"But I've always made the right decisions about everything," Rory said. "What if I made an impulsive decision? It's just not what I do."

"You've made a few impulsive decisions, if you'd like to rehash the past, sweetie darling."

"Okay, okay," Rory grimaced.

"Kiddo, you already know what's going to make you happy," Lorelai said. "And you're young enough to be able to undo it if it's wrong. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to undo the right decision than to undo the wrong one. So just be careful what you choose. You're smart, you'll figure it out. You don't need advice. Just listen to yourself."

"My gut says I need to take the job in DC," Rory said. "I think that's my next adventure."

Lorelai nodded. "Then that's what you should do."

"I'll be completely unsupervised by the paper," Rory said. "I'll be the lone representative in the press room. All my stories will be emailed so I'll almost never know the people I work for. I don't know anyone there so I'll be completely alone."

"Sounds like an adventure," Luke agreed. "Sounds like something you've never done before."

"And you are only 6 hours away so it's not terribly far," Lorelai said. "You could come home for long weekends if it ever felt like too much."

It pretty much felt decided by the time she went to bed that night an hour later. She had a lot to think about but even simply discussing her options out loud helped her gain some perspective on every side of the argument for going, seeking another job, and staying. She was the paper's first choice for the gig and they were waiting 2 weeks for her decision. That showed a lot of faith in her and a willingness to work with her. She could likely negotiate a solid salary for herself where she wouldn't be suffering. Her car insurance rates would decrease when she turned 25 and that would help, and her house bills would be low because she'd be living on her own and never home.

"Hello?"

He was groggy and she was surprised, considering it was only 9pm there. "Did I wake you?"

"It's okay," he said quietly, yawning. "I fell asleep over some work. But I was hoping to hear from you to see if you had gotten home safely."

"I sat up with Mom and Luke for a while talking," Rory said. "They're going to have a baby."

"Wow," Logan said. "Good for them!"

"I know," Rory agreed. "They seem really happy."

"Good, good, I'm glad to hear it," Logan said. "How are you, Ace?"

"Tired," she said. "I'm going to sleep in until at least 11. I can't wait."

"You should get on it then," Logan said.

"My mom welcomes you here," Rory told him. "Anytime you want?"

"I miss you," Logan said. "I don't like sleeping without you next to me."

Rory smiled into the phone and settled back. "I miss you too," she said. "I wish you were here now."

"Me too," he said. "You have any idea what I would do to you?"

This was a familiar routine. She knew what was coming and sighed happily, lowering her voice as she responded with what she imagined him doing to her. They had begun this recently when they realized it would be weeks before they'd get a chance to see each other again. They talked each other through their orgasms, whispered their I love you's, good night, and hung up. It was time to go to bed, and their dreams would be all a little brighter.

When Logan arrived at Stars Hollow, he had forgotten how sleepy yet cheerful the place was. But it held nothing to the warmth of the Gilmore household on game night. They weren't expecting him for another day but he had always planned on showing up today. He wanted to surprise them. Having just gotten off to Rory's breathy voice in his ear the previous night, he was ready to see her, hold her, kiss her. He could see the family in the living room playing a rowdy game of some sort. There was Luke, Lorelai, Rory, Lane, her husband Zack, their little 2 year old twins, and the strange pair of Sookie and Jackson with their munchkins.

Logan knocked on the door to be greeted by the sound of several voices jubilantly shouting, "Pizza!"

So when Luke opened the door, Logan gave him his trademarked dimpled grin and shrugged his shoulders. "I suddenly feel like a huge letdown."

Luke chuckled and held out a hand warmly. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Logan returned, shaking Luke's hand. He'd always liked Luke, even if Luke had not always liked him. But he imagined that had more to do with Logan's shacking up with who was essentially Luke's daughter. Luke was the sort of man who, when his respect had been garnered, it felt like a personal accomplishment. Logan felt a bit of a rush at the genuine welcome he received from Luke as he was invited inside.

"Need help carrying it?" Lorelai asked, bounding around the corner. As soon as she saw Logan, she laughed, surprised. "Whoa, hi!"

"Miss GIlmore," he said gallantly, giving a bow.

She shook her head at him and sighed. "She's in the living room. Give me your coat, kid."

"Kid, huh? I'm 26 years old."

"Do I look like I care?"

"Fair enough."

Logan let Lorelai take his coat and Luke took his bags. "I think you'll need both arms," Luke explained.

As soon as Logan turned into the living room, Logan saw what he meant. Lorelai and Luke watched quietly from behind as Rory's eyes flashed up as soon as her boyfriend said, "Ace."

She yelped, leaping to her feet and crashed across the room to jump into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and hugged him tightly. Logan sighed happily and accepted her easily. This was the sort of greeting she had given him when they lived together, when they had been in love. She would always jump on him, kissing every part of his face and neck that she could reach. She did it now, but on a considerably cleaner level considering how many people were watching.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked, finally being put on her feet. "You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow."

"Time difference," Logan said. "You got confused."

"It's only 4 hour difference."

"Okay, I got confused."

"Again, it's - "

"I can go and come back."

She pulled him against her and quieted him with a kiss, which elicited sighs from some and groans from others. She laughingly pulled away and turned to her mother and Luke. "He's staying with us, yes?"

"There's not a lot of room in bed with me and Luke so he might have to stay with you."

"Bummer," Logan replied. "Thank you, both. Really."

"We'll just put these things in Rory's room.," Lorelai said, nudging Luke backwards into the kitchen.

Rory reintroduced everyone in the room to Logan, although he was able to say all their names without her doing so. She looked at him wholly anew, knowing there was no way in the world he could have looked them up and memorized their names ahead of time - he had to have already remembered. It was those sort of things which always caught her off guard with Logan. She sometimes expected him to be the jackass he had been in college but he just wasn't. She knew that sooner rather than later they'd have to talk about her job prospects. If they were going to start a relationship, it was going to have to be long-distance or he was going to have to visit regularly. The expense of it wasn't a concern but she wasn't going to sacrifice her job or her life, she couldn't, so it had to be him to bend on this and that was never a nice thing to require of someone. That could certainly be problematic.

Game night at the Gilmore household. It included such absurdities as team Scrabble, charades, Balderdash, and Uno. Logan hadn't thought that beer, pizza, candy, and soda with a few ridiculous games would be so much fun. But it was one more reminder that Rory came from a family, not the societal obligatory clan that he had been raised in. He stopped wondering why she was so much more emotionally capable than him whenever he saw her interact with her mother. She had been raised by love and friendship. He had been raised by a schoolmaster and his classmates. It was no wonder she felt as though she had things to lose - she did. Logan's Damn It All attitude was less impressive when he realized he hadn't really risked anything by acting up - not his parents' love, not his inheritance, not his lifestyle, nothing. Rory had plenty to lose - respect, love, friendship, family, fitting in.

Watching Lorelai when in her element helped him understand her. It was clear to see why Emily Gilmore had such issue with her daughter. Lorelai was happy and down to earth and had a beauty all her own. She liked laughter and noise and goofy things. This Lorelai was a very different one than the one he'd seen at the Gilmore mansion, or at Yale, or at functions. She was crawling in her own skin at those things. Stars Hollow, in her house, with her friends, her daughter, and her man was where she belonged. He also understood her seemingly cold-hearted reaction to Rory's rebellion being to drop out of school and indulge herself - it was the one thing Lorelai hated the most. It was also why she'd had such trouble with Logan. A party-loving young man who had helped be a poor influence on her daughter, a man of privilege who didn't need to graduate Yale to be guaranteed to live out his life as a millionaire dozens of times over. She not only had no respect for it but she rebelled strongly against it. Her daughter shacking up with it must have been excruciating for her.

Rory had been afraid of disappointing people not because she was a people pleaser, as he had sometimes thought, but because she knew what it was like when someone was proud of her. Those first 30 minutes were incredibly enlightening for Logan.

When everyone else left and it was just the Gilmores and their boys, the intimacy of the evening made Logan feel like an outsider. They knew what it meant to entirely be themselves with people and he felt as though he had no choice but to be part of it. They wouldn't let him withdraw himself even if he wanted to. He was with Rory and that was his ticket into their inner circle. He had never heard quiet laughter when it wasn't an attempt at demureness but merely a comfortable tiredness. Rory laid her head in his lap and he stroked her hair lightly as she trickled her fingers up his leg on his jeans. He felt happiness couldn't be anything other than something akin to this.

"So Logan, how's California? And business?" Lorelai asked.

Logan was surprised and his face showed it but Lorelai's expression implied that he shouldn't let on. So he went straight-faced and answered, "It's going really well, thank you. There's not a whole lot to say about it, really. It's got a strong foundation and, these days, we're just waiting for our work to speak for itself."

"The place practically runs itself, you mean?" Lorelai asked. "They don't really need you?"

Logan raised his eyebrows, wondering where this was going. "Umm, well - "

"Well, we should go to bed," Lorelai said suddenly, rising. "I'm sure the two of you have plenty to catch up on."

Rory sighed after bidding them good night. Luke looked embarrassed and annoyed, Rory could tell, and knew her mother would get an earful when they got upstairs about her not so quiet meddling. She rolled over onto her back and looked up at Logan.

"Sorry," Rory said.

"Yeah, I don't know what that was," Logan said.

"I do," she said, deciding to use the 'rip the band-aid off method' for breaking this news. "I've been offered a job as the White House correspondent for the paper and I want to take it."

Surprisingly, his first reaction was ecstatic excitement for her. Caught off guard, she accepted his rain of kisses and hugs and congratulations. Then he realized what it was her mother had been getting at and he frowned.

"You got it, huh?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, I just got it," he said. "She's checking to see if I have any reason to not move there with you."

"Bingo."

"She's very protective of you, has anyone ever told her that before?"

"Yeah, you," Rory reminded him.

He grinned. "Finer times in the lives of Rory and Logan," he agreed. "Before I even begin talking to you about what I think, what are your thoughts about it?"

"I've pretty much decided on taking the job," she said. "It's a great opportunity and I'm still young enough to not get pigeon holed into this subject. And DC is a new city for me - it would be the adventure I was looking for. They're willing to pay me decently. And covering the first term of our first African American president will be fantastic."

"It certainly will be," Logan agreed. "I think you should do it, too."

"Do you?"

"I do," Logan said. "It's a great opportunity and, you're right, it'll be a hell of an adventure."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"Where do you picture me?" Logan asked.

Rory took in a breath. "I don't know."

"Do you want me there?" he inquired.

"I'm not ready to live with you again," she said. "If that's what you're asking about."

"Yes and no," Logan said. "I'm gauging where you are with this."

"I'd like to see you," Rory said, and held her breath for saying the next piece. "But I wouldn't be able to go to you. It would require you coming to DC more often than not. My being able to get away from work will be sporadic. I'm expected to fly out with the president on his trips, I'll be on call if something big happens and I need to go back to get briefed. Early mornings, late nights. 7 days a week. It will be a miserable schedule. You'll come visit and I'll still barely have time to go on a date with you."

"What a gloomy picture you paint," Logan said. "Nicely done."

His voice was good natured so she decided not to get prickly about it. "I want you to know what you're getting into."

"I have an idea," Logan said. "It's an incredible honor, Rory, to be 24 and asked to take this position. They clearly have faith in you."

"Right," Rory said. "It's kind of a big deal, I know."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Logan asked.

Rory shrugged and sighed a little. "I wanted to talk it over with my mom and think about it before deciding whether or not it needed to be brought up."

"Fair enough," he said. "You know, Rory, it probably doesn't matter where you lived, especially as long as it's stateside. I'll still come to see you just as regularly."

"But it's not like New York," Rory said. "Where you have an apartment and where you have a business you could return to. DC is a whole new place. There's nothing for you there."

"There's you," Logan replied. "However flippant this is going to sound, and however much you're going to be repulsed by my saying it, I've learned that I can start a business pretty much anywhere. It matters where you are. And if you're in DC, that's where I'll be. If it goes well, I'll figure out what to do with the rest."

So that was decided. She would draft a letter the next day to accept the position in Washington. She'd have to spend the week surrounding New Years looking for an apartment in DC, and she'd be bringing Logan to help her decide and move in. It was going to have to happen quickly and she suddenly felt the weight of her decision on her. It was where she was going. She was sending herself into the danger of a political career, which she did not want. She was also going to cover the only presidency worthy of news since Kennedy. It was a historical occasion and she was getting to be a part of it at a very young age. It was pretty exciting, and it would all be happening very, very soon.

Rory awoke in the morning to Logan sleeping soundly beside her, the time difference really screwing with his sleep schedule. She admired his face in the morning light, in her small bed of childhood, in the room where she had spent years daydreaming and reading. She looked over Logan's shoulder at the windows that her various boyfriends had appealed to her beneath. Logan had climbed in her window once, too, although that was at Yale. She wondered where this would go with them. They need not worry about loving each other or getting along or passion or anything other than being on the same track with their ideas about life and love.

She rose quietly, or what she thought was quietly, but Logan's arm snatched her back into bed. She muffled her giggle and fell back next to him beneath the covers as he retained the soft, sleepy expression on his face. "Don't go," Logan said. "It's not time to get up."

"Oh, but it is," Rory said. "We have to go to Luke's to get pancakes."

"Luke lives here," Logan moaned. "Why can't he make them for us here?"

"Because it's much more fun to walk into town and visit him at work," she said.

"I don't think that's true," Logan said, burying his face into her neck.

She smiled at him and they physically duked it out, Rory's elated jump from the bed signifying her win. He gave her an evil look as she threw the covers off him. "Don't try to seduce me with those bedroom eyes," Rory teased. "It's time to get up."

"Can I take a shower with you?"

"Sure, provided my mom doesn't see you."

"She's got you locked down," Logan replied, pulling the covers up around himself again. "I guess I'll wait."

For however much protesting he did, the walk into town with Rory and her mother was actually pleasant. The town had a knack for knowing when Rory was to return and everyone was everywhere, just waiting to say hello to who had been the darling of the town for so many years. She was all grown up now and they no longer could acceptably call her the town darling at 24 years old but just the same it was their priority to greet her before noticing her mother.

"I'd forgotten how popular you are," Logan said.

"Star's Hollow's own Queen for a year," Lorelai agreed.

"Really?" Logan asked, turning to his girlfriend's mother.

"Oh yeah," Lorelai went on, in spite of her daughter's looks of wrath. "She got a tiara and a scepter and a jester and the whole bit. And Taylor began mandating when she'd have to return to the town in order to meet her requirements as Queen - "

"A position for which I didn't lobby, by the way."

"And she told him just where to shove that schedule because she was elected Queen due to her academic achievements and there was no point in having a Star's Hollow Queen elected for academic achievements who then flunked out of school."

"Breathe?" Rory suggested to her mom, who had said it all in one breath.

"I'm working on it," Lorelai said.

"How's the inn?" Logan asked. "My friends stayed there when they went to visit their parents in Hartford recently and they loved it so I imagine it's doing well."

"Really?" Lorelai asked. "What are their names?"

"Jenny and Ted Jefferson," Logan replied.

"I remember them," Lorelai said. "They'd eloped and they were coming back to tell their parents. I'm surprised they didn't mention that they knew you."

"I doubt they knew there was a reason to," Logan said. "They knew of Rory but they didn't know any details of where she was from or what you did."

"So they brought it up not even knowing you had ties to it?" Lorelai asked.

Logan nodded. "They said they're recommending it to all their friends who have to visit their parents in Hartford," he said. "Long enough distance to compel an early night and close enough to make a quick get away. They also said the place is lovely and they particularly loved the staff, and the ready availability of the proprietor."

"Really?" Lorelai asked. "That's always really nice to hear."

"I was hoping to get a chance to tell you," Logan said. "In fact, a few friends of mine have already booked it for Christmas so I'm hoping to get everyone together."

"Not Colin and Finn," Rory said with a grin.

"Absolutely, Colin and Finn," Logan said. "Who else would I qualify as a friend? They're bringing girlfriends, too. They're practically grown-ups as well."

"Scandalous!" Rory exclaimed.

"They're always falling for peer pressure," he replied. "I haven't seen them in a while. It'll be a good time."

"What are you and your parents doing for Christmas, Logan?" Lorelai asked.

Ever since he had come to ask her permission to marry Rory, she'd had a different sense of respect for Logan. Rory had changed the type of man he wanted to be and he'd gone with it, becoming someone that he could be proud to present to his girlfriend. He'd also apologized to Lorelai after Rory had said 'no' for ever putting her in an awkward position of approving something that Rory herself hadn't and he hoped he hadn't caused any rift there. Lorelai would never, ever tell her daughter this but she had exchanged a few emails with Logan merely expressing her best wishes for him and making sure that he was doing okay. Considering the ambivalence with which they had begun their association, and how they had met while he had been undressing her daughter at her parents' wedding, her respect for him had grown to an acceptable level.

"Uh, well, they'll be in France, actually," Logan said. "They have some friends over there."

"Are you going?"

"Not likely," Logan said.

"I hope you're staying with us then," Lorelai said.

Logan smiled. "I'd like that, thank you."

"There are presents in it for me, right?" she double-checked. "And none of that 'early baby shower' bullshit, either."

"I wouldn't dare," Logan replied with a chuckle.

Logan fit in so easily, it amazed Rory. As they sat down at Luke's, the three of them, he made conversation with her mother, her friends, the townspeople, as though he had always lived there or as though his relationship with Rory had never waned. He understood exactly what Kirk was all about and he had a solid time discussing the true gravity of the need for caution tape on curbs because his Lulu had sprained her ankle by side-stepping off of one. And when Luke protectively poured Lorelai a cup of decaf coffee, she complained heavily but stopped mid-stream as Logan stealthily swapped hers for his, even after she'd taken a sip of it.

"I like you a lot better this time around," Lorelai said to Logan with a conspiratorial wink.

"Mom," Rory said, swapping them back. "That's a baby in there. You can't get that child hooked on coffee at birth like you did with me. It's not fair."

"It's not about the baby, Rory, it's about Mommy," Lorelai said. "And it'll only get to be about Mommy for the next 5 months before this thing comes out screaming and sucks up the next 18 years of my life like you, my darling little girl, did."

"I didn't make you have children 25 years apart, Mom," Rory said.

"No, men and their spiteful sperm did," Lorelai said, giving Luke an evil eye from across the room.

He threw up his hand with the spatula. "What? I'm not even over there," he shouted back. She sent him an air kiss and he turned his back to her with a shake of his head.

"He's learned how to do it," Lorelai said quietly, turning to her daughter and Rory. "Be able to ignore all my hijinks and I find it adorable. I don't know how he did it, but I think he's cute when he acts exasperated with me."

"I'll take notes," Logan said.

"Don't you dare," Lorelai said. "I want your exasperation with Rory to be real. That way she'll know the difference."

"We've already dated for 3 years, Mom, I think I know the difference already," Rory said.

"Shh, shh, whatever," Lorelai said, nodding appreciatively at Logan as he swapped coffee with her again. "Good boy. Mommy likes kiss-ass Logan."

"Most people do."

"Oh Lord," Rory said. "Monsters. You're both absolute monsters."

"I'll be better once I've had pancakes," Lorelai said.

"Are you going to the inn today?" Logan asked.

"For a little bit, yes," Lorelai said. "Why do you ask?"

"I'd like to see it, if that's alright with you," Logan said. "I also hear that there's a particularly charming toolshed somewhere here in town that used to contain you two which I'd like to see."

"Almost like a baby Jesus story," Lorelai said. "Yes, absolutely, we can drive by there, too. And what are you doing today, Rory, since I'm spending quality time with your boyfriend?"

"Bookstore."

"Shocking."

Rory hadn't really conceived that Logan would request alone time with her mother, nor that Lorelai would agree to it so readily. She felt a bit left out in whatever they both obviously wanted to speak about and she had missed the conversation where they agreed that Rory wasn't going to the inn with them. Oh well. She had a lot of perusing to do at the bookstore. She hadn't been able to pick up a book in months and she was bound to need a new something to take to DC with her.

Logan climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep Wrangler with Lorelai after breakfast for the short drive to the Dragonfly Inn. "You know, it's really impressive," Logan said. "What you've done. Not just with raising Rory but in starting your own very successful business and building a life for yourself."

"Logan, Rory isn't here, you don't have to say nice things to me anymore."

"No, I'm serious," Logan said. "Honestly, the two of you are what made me break away from family business. Remember when I came and told you about the business?"

"On the day forever to be embedded in your mind as humiliating, yes, I remember," Lorelai replied.

"Thanks for bringing that part of it up," Logan said, wincing. "I was so nervous about it, but thrilled because it was going to be just mine. It's just exploding, we're really successful, even in this economy. We decided to open a second branch in New York last year, which I'm splitting my time between. So I'm going to be on the east coast more than you might expect."

"But what you're saying is that it's actually a very intense job and it's going to be incredibly difficult for you to get away to see Rory in DC?" Lorelai realized.

He nodded. "Yeah, a little bit."

"Does she know?" Lorelai asked.

"No," Logan said. "She never has asked much about what I do for a living because I think she's already so tired she's terrified the conversation would put her to sleep. It's kind of just never come up and I don't know how to bring it up now."

"You have to," Lorelai said. "She's making a decision about DC based on the idea that you can see her often."

"I can, and I will," Logan replied. "But you know how guilty she gets about other people's decisions about her and other people sacrificing for her. I don't think I'd ever see her worry-free if she knew that I was working into the night while she slept simply so I could be there with her. But it's what I want to do. So I want to have a chance to do it for a while, see that it works, before I bring it up. This way she makes a decision based purely on what she wants to do."

"So regardless of what she said she wanted to do, you'd have said it was easy for you to work around it?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Logan said. "Lorelai, I'm getting a second chance with her. I wouldn't blow it. Not for a work schedule. For hers, yes. Not for mine. I never, in a million years, thought I would ask you to be my support on this - "

"No, you've got it," Lorelai agreed. "I'm never going to advocate that you keep something from her, though you're right that she has plenty to worry about without adding the guilt of keeping you from your job. But she'll be more upset if she finds out on her own that this is hard for you."

"I don't want her to worry," Logan said. "And not in that 'don't worry your pretty little head about it' sort of way but in a 'let me be your partner and carry some of the load' sort of way."

Lorelai pulled the Jeep into her old parking space at the Independence Inn and turned to Logan after she'd shut off the car. She sized up the 26 year old young man in front of her, a man who had begun his time with Rory in a less than desirable way and in spite of it being Rory who had made the first move, she had taken a long time to like him. But he wasn't boastful, he wasn't mean, he wasn't an heir. He kept his accomplishments to himself and had a patience about him that she admired. He was working towards being a man he was proud of, a man that he could quietly take to the Gilmore family and say 'here's the deal - what do you think?' and not worry what they thought, but hoping they liked him all the same.

"I didn't think I'd like you, Logan," Lorelai said. "I didn't like what you were for Rory in the beginning. She may have needed that at that point in her life, who knows? But who you've become, I know why she loves you like she does. And I'm happy that you're getting her back. You've done a good job, kiddo. You should be proud. I'm proud of what you've accomplished."

As he managed to choke out a response of gratitude, he wondered what sort of person he would be if he had grown up with someone as kind and loving as Lorelai as his mother instead of the cold debutante who was his mother. He got a walk-through of the shed where 17 year old Lorelai had hidden with her six month old daughter after being unable to take any more of her parents' treatment. It was a single room, a curtain to cover the bathroom. The kitchen melded into the living room into the bedroom. It was all the same. The place was clean, he realized. Someone still took care to keep it relatively preserved and he knew it must be Lorelai.

"I've never seen a mom who loved her kid so much," Logan said, looking around the room.

"I loved her enough to not let her be raised by those people," Lorelai said. "They love her because she's a good kid. But what if she hadn't been? I know how they treated me. I couldn't let it happen. So I just worked very hard."

"She'd be 9," Logan said quietly. "If I were in your shoes, I'd have a 9 year old daughter."

Lorelai nodded. "Sometimes, I can't believe I did it."

"And Christopher?" Logan asked. "She doesn't really talk about it."

"I don't think she wants more than the blurb," Lorelai said. "Chris took off doing what 17 year old boys of privileged families do when they knock up a girl. We were madly in love and he was around sporadically for a while, but then he pretty much disappeared once college came into the picture. I didn't really see him again until Rory was in second grade. Then he was in and out of her life, but we already had Luke at that point, so."

"He's older?"

"A bit," Lorelai said. "It made a difference back then, when I was a kid. He moved back to help his sick dad run the hardware store. But when his dad died, he turned it into the diner. He'd feed her for free so I tried to not go there so often but he'd just end up coming over with food to make sure one of us wasn't sick. I learned it was easier to just go in there and once I started doing better, he started charging me for her food."

"That's incredibly sweet," Logan said. "Not to have a girl talk with you or anything, but the two of you is one hell of a story."

"Yeah, it took us a while to get here but here we are," Lorelai said with a smile. "It all takes time, Logan. Kids are kids. You grew up too soon, but in the opposite way that Rory did. You grew up instantly, forgetting childhood, straight to adolescence, forget your twenties, straight to your thirties. Give yourselves time to grow, to be sure."

"Trust me, I learned my lesson last time about trying to rush a Gilmore into anything."

"Yeah, we don't do well with the marriage so much."

"You don't say."

"I'm sorry you got hurt," Lorelai said. "I honestly had no idea what her answer would be, but if I'd had a better idea, I might have suggested you try proposing privately."

Logan shrugged. "We'll get over it," he said. "I thought it would be a big deal, but it was a bigger deal to not be with her. So, in the grand scheme of things, it was just the inconvenience of buying and returning the ring. Oh, and 15 months of crushing, depressing loneliness but, you know, price you pay."

"I've had some experience with returning rings," Lorelai said. "That's no fun, either."

"That doesn't really make me feel better," Logan replied.

"What? The overwhelming evidence that averting marriage is a hereditary condition that Rory also suffers from?" she asked. He gave her a look. "I'm not helping, am I?"

"Yeah, not really."

"Logan, if you love my kid, and be there for each other, you'll be fine," Lorelai said. "She loves you, we both know that. Just make sure you talk to each other."

Logan nodded. "Thanks, Lorelai. It means a lot."

There wasn't much else to say in the room which had held the first few years of Rory's life, so they went to the Dragonfly shortly after. Logan was lost in his own thoughts, trying to figure out how to approach "Logan and Rory 2.0". For her part, Lorelai was only glad to hear that the kid was willing to listen to advice. There was no doubting he loved her daughter, but Lorelai knew what a long-distance relationship had done to them before, how much they had hated it, and she hoped there was less trouble and pain this time around.


	3. Hartford

**_The reason I didn't plan to publish the whole thing is because I've had a difficult time keeping the story going and remaining interesting after the initial excitement of their reunion fades away. Then they have to begin dealing with their issues like actual people would - which isn't all that sexy of a storyline. So I've never finished it. I'm about coming to an end of what I chocked out a year or two ago for Logan but have never been able to finish. So, very unlike me, but I am asking for people's ideas about an ending. _**

**_Also, perhaps the omnipresence of Jess in this story might give it away - I'm an equal Literati as I am Rogan shipper. In fact, the way I wrote this initial story includes him, and an eventual turn to him because I got bored by the long-distance Logan plot, which has a real "been there, done that" quality because the show did it (so I suppose I understand Logan's sentiments). _**

* * *

It only took a few sentences into a conversation about the logistics of their long-distance relationship as they walked around the town square for Rory to figure out that his being able to visit her regularly was a bit more of an imposition than he had initially let on. She gave him a horrified look, having already sent out her letter of acceptance.

"Logan! How could you let me make that kind of decision without telling me?" she asked.

"We broke up because you wouldn't marry me because you had to make your own decisions, independent of others' influence," Logan said. "So you couldn't make this decision about me. Not in the least."

"But - "

"And it doesn't matter where you move, unless you moved to San Francisco," Logan continued, not permitting her to interrupt. "It would still be difficult, and I'd still do it all exactly the same way. It's your job to let me worry about this end of it for a while - I chose to do the commute. You've had to choose that for my business ventures plenty. It's my turn. I know I can do this. Just let me do it."

"And what if the stress of balancing your job and me is what breaks us up?" Rory inquired. "That isn't something I get to have input on?"

Logan tilted his head. "Yeah, I hadn't really thought of that," he said. "But mostly because it's not going to happen. I know what I can handle, Ace."

"Are you sure?" Rory asked.

"Absolutely," Logan replied. "It's not going to be our schedules that break us up, Rory. No way."

"We couldn't do it last time, you know," Rory said quietly. "I kind of take it seriously."

"So do I," Logan said. "Believe me, I take it very seriously. I'll make it work this time."

Rory smiled at him. "You know, I'm really proud of what you've accomplished," she said.

"It's because of you," Logan said. "You told me that I didn't have to answer to anyone, and you showed me I didn't have to be my parents' heir."

"Yeah, sorry about all those cracks, by the way," Rory said, cringing as she thought of the articles and criticism she'd dished out about elite society.

"You know, Ace, I rarely gave you many reasons to think differently of me," Logan said. "I never even told you what I told Lorelai, which is that I'd been recruited to start up this company."

"She knew?" Rory asked in surprise.

"No. Yes. Sort of."

"Explain?"

"I told her about San Francisco when I went to ask her if I could marry you."

"You asked her permission?" Rory asked, feeling guilty and nostalgic and touched all at once.

"Yes, well, okay, so I told her about San Francisco then," Logan said. "I wanted her to understand what she was agreeing to if she gave me her permission, that I'd be taking her daughter and, honestly, her closest friend, 3,000 miles away."

Rory flashed back to a conversation she'd had with Jess when she was 16 demanding that he try to get along with her mother because Lorelai was going to be a big part of their lives. It had been just the two of them for so long that they came as something of a package. Logan had no issue with including Lorelai. In fact, in spite of Lorelai's initial resistance, she couldn't not respect and like him. He was a genuinely good kid and he loved her daughter. It was fortunate for her that, in the end, he turned out to be one of the good guys.

"You know my mom loves to be included on things like that," Rory said.

"I know," Logan said. "That's why I talked to her about it. I knew she'd want to hear from the horse's mouth what the plan is. Besides that, we'd shared pie recently so I felt there was an unbreakable bond between us at that point. That's even before she added ice cream to it."

"You're a good boyfriend."

"I always told you I could be, Ace."

"Telling? Doing?"

"Can I ask you something?" Logan asked. "And you not get offended?"

"Now that you've said it, I get the feeling that 'not being offended' part is going to be an effort."

"Yeah, give it your best Joe college effort."

"I did go to Yale."

"Good girl," Logan said. "So, the guy you were openly casual with in New York -"

"Lord."

"Stop bristling, I warned you beforehand this was sketchy territory," Logan said. "It doesn't happen to be someone going to DC with you, does it?"

"I haven't the foggiest, to be honest with you," Rory said. "We were on the road together, but different papers. He'll be going back to Seattle, I believe. You know, Logan, green looks good on you."

"I felt like I needed to ask," Logan said, ignoring her snarky comment. "Something about being the only person in the room who doesn't know that you two had a history."

"I'm pretty sure I said that about you at your sister's wedding," Rory said.

Logan threw his arm around her neck and gave her a noogie as they walked down the street. "One would think he'd learn to stop opening his mouth."

"Only in the cases where you immediately insert your foot," she said with a grin. "I really am done with it. It was a long time ago."

"I know," he said. "But I'm sure it's nothing you want to think about."

"I kissed Jess while we were together," Rory reminded him. "Or he kissed me. Or whatever."

"I wasn't worried then, I'm not now," Logan said. "We were kids, we get crushes, we do dumb things. And, by the way, can we stop talking about every instance of 'not cheating' on each other with other people anytime soon?"

"Amen, sistah," she said.

"Glory Hallelujah."

"Look at us," Rory said with a grin. "Talking about this like grown-ups. No raised voices or anything."

"We're full-growed, almost," Logan returned.

Logan darted in and out of Stars Hollow through the holiday season. For Thanksgiving, they resumed their mobile potluck tradition, which went from Lane's house to Luke's diner to the Gilmore residence in Hartford. They decided to all get into Lorelai's vehicle so Luke could drive them, knowing he wasn't likely to drink too much and if he did, they could count on the one with a bun in the oven to not drink, for a change. Rory and Lorelai rode 'in the bitch seats' as Lorelai gleefully called it and revved themselves up for the first dinner at the Gilmore residence that they had attended in quite some time.

"Wicked witch of Hartfordshireville."

"Ooh, I still like that word," Rory said. "Comes from your stalling fairy tale tactic of yore."

"Yes, yore, those were the better days, weren't they?"

"Oh, yore, where hast thou gone? My sweeter time of youth, my yore."

"Do you ever feel like an intruder?" Logan asked Luke.

"An obsolete intruder, absolutely," Luke confirmed.

"Are we required to be at this thing?" Lorelai asked. "They'll really only want to grill you both."

"Do they know you're pregnant?" Luke asked.

Lorelai averted her eyes instantly and started whistling a merry tune.

"That's great," Luke said. "So glad I get to be here for that."

"Hey, it's not like the Thanksgiving when I was 16 and told them I was pregnant."

"You couldn't have told them you were pregs at Thanksgiving, my birthday is in October," Rory said.

"Or Valentine's Day or whatever it was," Lorelai repaired.

"My mother's a liar."

"Yes, very much so, my dear, but in the kindest way," Lorelai replied. "I like to think I'm artistically correcting boring stories."

"Lying," Luke muttered.

"Liar lover."

At this point, Logan texted Rory with Work Dork Lover which made her smile.

"None of that!" Lorelai said, spying her daughter with her phone out, ready to reply. "If you want to have conversation, you'll have it openly and loudly as we are."

"What if we're talking about you two?" Logan asked.

"Proceed and let me be in peace."

"You know, Mom, you're pretty pregnant," Rory said. "They're going to notice as soon as you walk in the door. Don't you think you ought to, I don't know, just tell them you've gained a lot of weight and let your mom make fun of you for being fat for a while before you tell them the truth?"

"You two haven't seen them in how long and this is how you're setting up the evening?" Luke asked. "There are innocent victims involved in these schemes."

"Victims, perhaps, but innocent they are not," Lorelai replied. "Sort of like my dear, sweet, no longer innocent daughter."

"Hey!" Rory protested.

"What have we discussed about reminding me of Rory's... Uh... Adult-like - "

"Sex life?" Lorelai jabbed, much to everyone's dismay and protestations.

"Oh! Lorelai! Fist. Teeth. Seriously," Luke said, shaking a clenched fist at her.

"He's so violent, I love it," Lorelai said. "Hey, Luke, you remember that time you walked in on Logan and Rory at my parents' re-wedding and I had to keep you from killing first Logan, then Chris. That was so sweet."

"Yeah, that's great, keep bringing it up," Rory said.

"Or that time you walked in on Jess and Rory about to have their first kiss and you laid down the rules with Jess about how to act with Rory," Lorelai said. "And Jess had to remind you that he was your ward, not Rory, so why was HE getting the 'stay away from her' speech from you?"

"Mom, this isn't getting any better," Rory said.

"Speaking of, how is Jess?" Logan asked, surprising them all.

Lorelai looked at Rory, who raised her hands defensively. "Don't look at me, I haven't talked to him in a couple of years."

"He's fine," Luke said.

An awkward silence filled the car before Lorelai poked him. "Thanks, Captain Elaborate."

"Yeah, he's still in Philly," Luke said. "Bookstore is doing well, he's started seeing a girl who doesn't seem half bad, and he's bartending to make a bit of extra income. He's fine."

"Is he going to school?" Lorelai asked.

"How the hell should I know that?" Luke returned. "I'm lucky if he answers the phone, let alone tells me what's going on."

"Fair enough," Lorelai said. "I'm glad he's done something with himself."

"Took him long enough," Luke said.

"Are you both sufficiently angry to go inside and face the music?" Logan asked as they turned into the Gilmore residence driveway.

"Certainly," Lorelai and Rory said together.

Not surprisingly, Emily and Richard were so excited to see Rory that not much else mattered. That is, of course, until they noticed Logan was with her and then they got even more excited

They were transparent in their desperate want for her to marry him. Her grandmother enjoyed the status of his family, in spite of how much she loathed them, and the convenience that they already were socially aligned with the Huntzbergers. Her grandfather had a bizarre paternal crush on Logan. Although, really, as a man surrounded by women, how couldn't he? Richard Gilmore was built to have sons, and not only never had one, but not even sons-in-law. And Logan had dimples, charm, wit, and brains. He was a masculine, like-minded presence in the Gilmore household and could play golf, shoot skeet, and talk The Wall Street Journal as he sipped a scotch that wasn't nearly as good as another that Richard must try. Sometimes it was difficult to remember that Logan was this strange mixture of two people - Logan and Mr. Huntzberger.

Lorelai went immediately to the bar, not expecting a hug from her parents, having never received one in her life, and she made drinks for her daughter and Luke. She knew that her father would share his best scotch with Logan (they were like that) and Luke would want to avoid being part of that crowd by already having a drink of his own. No amount of 'no thank you' ever worked with Richard when he wanted to share a really fine scotch. And sure enough, he dragged Logan off immediately to peruse the collection.

"Oh, Rory, I'm so glad to see you! And to have Logan with you! I just knew he was the one for you!" Emily gushed.

"Whoa, slow down, Yenta, they only just got back together," Lorelai said, sitting down on the couch. "Give them some room. Don't go registering them anywhere."

"Lorelai, I'm pleased to see that you don't yet have a drink in your hand," Emily said.

"I know you've always been concerned with my alcoholism," her daughter replied, pleased her mother hadn't yet noticed her rounding stomach. She especially didn't want to give such news with her father in the other room as he was likely to be the only one even marginally appreciative of the information.

"So Rory, tell me everything," Emily said. "How was the campaign trail? What are you doing next?"

"I wouldn't even know where to begin, Grandma," Rory said with a smile. "It was an amazing experience, a once in a lifetime chance."

"Are you staying with the paper?" she asked. "Are you on vacation?"

Rory nodded. "They gave me from the election week on through to the first week of the new year as furlough since I really haven't had a day off since I graduated college, really," she said. "I think I'm going to spend two weeks in San Francisco and New York with Logan -"

"Really?" Lorelai interrupted, not knowing this.

"Or a week," Rory amended, seeing her mother's disappointed face before turning back to her grandmother. "But then I'll be in Washington, DC. Obama's press secretary recommended my paper and they agreed, offering the post to me. So, there you go."

"That's wonderful!" Emily exclaimed. "Just wonderful! Oh, I'm so proud of you! I knew you'd do well. You obviously made a very good impression on them."

"Don't let her fool you, Mom, she was sleeping with the press secretary."

"Mom!"

"Lorelai!"

Rory stifled her giggle at her mother's consistent irreverence and knew it would never change, thus choosing to find it amusing instead. Emily was, of course, appalled, and turned her attention back to her less distressing grandchild.

"What are you and Logan going to do?" Emily asked.

"Well, he's been a partner in a technology consulting company he's starting up, with branches in Palo Alto and New York," Rory began to explain. "And I know it takes up a lot of his time so we'll be long distance for a while - long weekends and things like that, he'll come to DC."

"Will that work?" Emily asked, frowning. "I thought for sure that you'd move in together now that you've decided to get back together and you're settling in somewhere."

"I have a job for the next 4 years, maybe, if it goes well," Rory said. "That's not really settling in somewhere. Besides, he has a business to run that requires him there and neither of us are going to give up our careers in order to do this. But we know we want to see if we can make it work this time."

"I think it's great," Lorelai piped in before her mother could criticize. "They're both being very realistic and adult about where they are in their lives."

"You're at that age, Rory, where you should start thinking about settling down," Emily said with a slight, worried frown. "Otherwise, before you know it, you'll be too old."

"Is she that age?" Lorelai asked. "She's 24. It's not the same, Mom, as it used to be."

"Lorelai, I was talking to Rory," Emily chided her.

"I'm sorry, Mom, I thought the 'before you know it, you'll be too old' comment was directed to me," Lorelai said.

"Well..." Emily said suggestively.

"Oh my God," Luke finally said, standing up and pacing a moment before fixing Emily with his sternest look. "I'm right here."

"I see you," Emily replied. "And you look very nice today."

"How do you make 'you look very nice today' sound like 'you look like a bum every other day', Mom, I really want to know," Lorelai said.

"What? I was paying him a compliment," Emily said. "He dresses very well. I'm always impressed when he comes over here because I know how he likes to dress."

"I think we're insulted but I'm not sure," Lorelai replied.

"Guys, we just got here," Rory said. "We have a whole Thanksgiving dinner to argue through. Pace yourselves."

"You're right," Lorelai said as Richard and Logan came back. "I'm sorry."

"We heard some raised voices," said Richard, returning to his wife's side. "We figured we ought to come back."

"I don't know what they're getting so riled up about -"

"Mom," Lorelai cut her mother off before she could say anything else. "I'm glad you're both in the room because there's something that Luke and I want to tell you."

Emily raised her eyebrows curiously and Rory was glad that the topic had changed, although this was bound to cause an argument all on its own. When's the wedding? How are you pregnant out of wedlock at 40? You're not 16 anymore. Why won't you make an honest woman of her? Blah blah blah...

"Luke and I are expecting a baby in mid-April," Lorelai said, looking to Luke for support. "And we plan on getting married in July or August, so I can look all slinky and excellent in my wedding dress, although that's not set in stone, we're not really stuck on any particular date yet."

Emily and Richard seemed to hardly know what to say but, shockingly, it was Emily who reacted first, and not with words, but by crossing the room to hug Luke. Lorelai shot her daughter a look and Rory knew exactly what she was thinking - Luke has now been hugged by Emily, so has Logan, so has Rory, and Lorelai never has. A bizarre world this Gilmore family. Rory shrugged and Lorelai knew she ought to be grateful for her mother's reaction but she was so thrown by it that she couldn't accept it openly.

Richard however seemed to be of the same thought and he pulled his daughter to her feet, bringing her into his large embrace and kissing her forehead as though she were a child. Perhaps they had been waiting for her to grow up, as though raising her child when she was still a child was more like a long-term babysitting gig. They had always kind of thought of Rory as theirs anyway. Now their little girl was finally grown up, having a family, and they weren't looking at her age, or her unmarried status, only that she had committed to someone and they were having a baby. Rory was as shocked as Luke and Lorelai that the Gilmores hadn't voiced a single negative comment yet, and it never came, either.

When are you due? Do you know the sex? Have you talked names? Have you set up the nursery? Who's throwing you a shower? Who's coming to the shower? Can I come to the shower? Do you have a sonogram picture? Who's your doctor? Oh no, use our doctor.

The conversation was as absurd and ideal as any of them could have anticipated. Emily was only concerned with plans, not appearances. She didn't vocalize a single criticism. The questions continued on to the dinner table and Emily didn't even notice that they sat down to dinner at 5:33, not 5:30. It was fascinating to the spectators.

"What is it about babies that make women absolutely lose their minds?" Luke asked quietly to Logan and Rory. They were half an hour into Emily making baby plans with her daughter, and Lorelai was not only perplexed by the interest her mother showed but the genuine joy on her face.

"Hard to say," Logan said. "Could it be that they're a captive audience? Can't talk back? Can't run away?"

"I'm sitting right here, I can hear you," Rory said.

"You don't go baby crazy, I'm not worried about you yet," Luke said.

Rory grinned. "Grandpa Luke," she teased.

"How many times have we talked about not reminding me that you, you know, do stuff," Luke grumbled, turning away from them. She knew he appreciated the title all the same.

"Speaking of making families and having weddings," Logan said quietly, looking at Rory. "I've always been curious. Have you ever thought about who would give you away at your wedding?"

Rory looked at him in surprise. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, Chris would be upset if he didn't," Logan said. "But I get the feeling that Luke has really earned it."

"Yeah," Rory said thoughtfully, looking at Luke. "He definitely has. I mean, I'll never call him 'Dad' or anything but he is. He was always there, more than Dad, for sure. But, you're right, if Chris wasn't giving me away, it would be hard for him to attend."

"Probably."

Rory frowned. "Aw, why'd you make me think about that?"

"Maybe they could do it together?"

"Oh Lord, stop talking about it!" she groaned. "I don't want to think about it!"

Logan chuckled and rubbed her back briefly. "Sorry."

"Really!"

The remainder of their Thanksgiving evening was remarkably the same. Emily was overjoyed at the seeming stability of her daughter and granddaughter, feeling they'd both gotten back to where they had always belonged. Even if Emily wasn't thrilled to be admitting Luke into the family, she had learned her lesson about challenging Lorelai's loyalty to him.

"I can't believe I don't want a drink after that meal," Lorelai said as they all left the house, stuffed and stunned.

"I can't believe how excited Grandma was about it," Rory said.

"I can't believe I ate another meal," Logan grunted. "You do this every year?"

"I can't believe she didn't even hint at how the Danes bloodline would tarnish the reputable Gilmore name," Luke said drily.

This brought a round of laughter from the others. To leave the Gilmore estate, particularly on a holiday, in a jovial mood was something worth celebrating. At least this is what Lorelai said.

"So I say," she said excitedly as they all climbed into the Jeep, "that we all go find ourselves another Thanksgiving dinner to crash!"

"No!" was the universally shouted disapproval.

"I can't end Thanksgiving without a fight and having received a disappointed look from someone," Lorelai pouted.

"I'll happily accommodate," Luke said. "Just don't make me eat another meal."

Lorelai turned back to look at her daughter and grinned, jerking a thumb at Luke, "You've gotta find yourself one of these."

Rory shot a sparkling smile at Logan. She didn't reply, and Lorelai didn't press for an answer to her jest. Logan didn't need her to say anything. There was a sweetness in her smile, and a tenderness in her touch when she scooted across the backseat to cuddle with him that said it all. Or perhaps it said she was in an uncomfortable food coma and wanted some support. Really, he was at peace with either.


	4. Washington, DC

_**My thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond, not just with encouragement but especially with criticism. It is truly appreciated.**_

* * *

The holiday season passed all too quickly for Rory. She spent more than a week in DC with her mother looking at places to live and researching the neighborhoods while Logan returned home. She then joined him for 10 days in Palo Alto and San Francisco. He returned with her to Stars Hollow again for the week of Christmas and the New Year. After all, how else was he to understand what he was getting into unless he visited the Winter Carnival with its felonious fortune teller? He needed to see, accept, and resolve himself to these quirky town traditions because they were a part of who she was. He was eager for them, having never had such roots or traditions in his own upbringing, at least none he cared to share or revisit.

At one unfortunate point, she and Logan ran into Dean. He had moved on, of course, and dated since Rory but that didn't make it less awkward. She was the one who had broken up his marriage and this was no secret in the small town. She wore a scarlet A on her chest when Dean's current girlfriends saw her. They all thought of her as the heartless vixen who didn't mind taking Dean whenever she felt like it, but never treating him well when she had him. Logan caught the vibe, knew the stories, but never really did he fully grasp what a bunch of small town gossip could do to completely ostracize her from the society of her age. She had gone to a different high school and she had broken up the marriage of one of their local heros. The adults loved her - the people her age did not.

"I left their high school for Chilton, I went to Yale, I travelled," Rory said to Logan as they parted ways with Dean and his girlfriend of a year, Jamie. "I was always a little different, so I was never popular, but when I started to succeed, there was some resentment from my former classmates. I came back into their sights only when I broke up Lindsey and Dean. I don't have the best reputation with my peers in this town."

"I see."

"It's resentment. Don't try to understand."

"I couldn't begin to," he agreed. "I just find it surprising, that's all."

"What?"

"A place where you have the rep as the troublemaker," Logan teased.

She smiled and tucked her hand into his coat pocket. The snow was heavily coming down now and she was starting to feel the cold.

"Cold?" he asked. "Want to skip out to your house now?"

"I think so," she agreed. "That was a long enough walkabout."

"I agree," Logan said. "And I know how you feel about exercise."

"I think I'm done for," she began to whine. "I'll have to be carried back."

"Suck it up, Ace, I'm all about leaving a fallen man behind for my own survival."

"You're dead inside," she pouted.

Without warning or hesitation, he released her hand from his arm and tossed her into a snowbank on the side of the road. Shrieking, she went down, sinking deeply into the cold, slushy pile.

"Huntzberger!" she roared, mostly to be heard over his laughter. But she couldn't help it, she started laughing, no longer struggling to get out of the predicament he had placed her in but resolved to it. She laid back, her heart light and her cheeks flushed from the chill of the air.

"Cannonball!" he shouted, jumping into the snow with her.

"Jerkface!" she yelled, scooping snow and dropping it onto his face.

A wrestling and snowball fight of epic proportions ensued. The town square was left mangled at the end of it as Logan and Rory chased each other, hurling snow at each other. Kirk joined in, hollering as he ran through the square, a snowball in each hand to throw at each of them at once. Then the kids joined in, and the teenagers, and the parents. Rory and Logan found themselves irrelevant to the snowball war they themselves had started and sneaked away as quickly as they could.

"What's the matter with this town?" Logan asked incredulously as they slowed from a run to a walk, gasping for breath. "Who ever grew up in a town with a spontaneous, town-wide snowball fight? This is ridiculous!"

Rory laughed, turning around to walk backwards, watching the carnage unfold behind them. "Huntzberger, your girlfriend grew up in Whoville."

"Yeah, no kidding," he said. "You know you people are nuts, right?"

"Well, obviously."

He grabbed her, looping an arm around her waist and pulling her aside. He pushed her against a tall, thick tree with his own body and kissed her solidly. "Your lunacy is sexy," he muttered against her lips.

She pulled him tightly against her body and forwardly deepened the kiss he had begun. "You think so?"

Logan moaned slightly, bowing his head to bury his face in the nook of her neck, taking a small amount of flesh from her neck between his teeth. Her body went on high alert and she breathed heavily. "You know I do."

Rory hooked her fingers through his belt loops, pulling his hips towards her until she felt him flush against her. His breath caught and he pressed himself against her harder. "Yes, I do know," she replied flirtatiously.

"You should take me home, Gilmore," Logan said. "Before I do something in public to fortify your rep as a questionable woman of loose morals."

Laughing, she slid away from where he had her pinned against a tree and they hurriedly made their way home, hardly able to keep their hands off of each other. It was like it had been before. No, it was better than it had before been. They were adults now, able to enjoy themselves, and each other, with the experience and knowledge gained from a life lived without the other. Their hearts were full, their bodies enticed, and it was the most gratifying of returns to a love almost lost.

* * *

It would be at least 3 weeks before Logan could make it to DC to visit her because of how much time he'd taken to see her from Thanksgiving to the New Year, but he knew he'd rack up some great mileage traveling to see her all the time and soon enough would be able to buy every few tickets for free. She merely shook her head at his long-term strategizing, his acceptance that this was not to change anytime soon, and they sadly parted ways. It was easier, knowing she'd see him again in a few weeks instead of in a few months, which was as long as their separations used to be when they were living together.

Luke took a few days off work to drive to DC with Lorelai and Rory to help her move in. Chris, upon hearing the news, had offered the help but Rory turned him down. He had Gigi and work, and while his efforts at paternal duties was admirable, his delivery was sometimes more stressful and she wanted this to be as smooth as possible. Luke had done well moving her into her dorm and he was Lorelai's soon to be husband, so it only seemed fitting. Besides, who else could sit in a car with Lorelai and Rory talking a thousand words per minute and not only be able to keep up but not get tired of it? The look of love in their eyes and the absolute peace and comfort they shared ensured to Rory that her mother had finally found and would be keeping the right one. He had always been there. He just now got to be hers.

"What's the neighborhood called?" Luke asked as they followed the GPS directions into the heart of DC.

"Eastern Market," Rory said. "But it's just a few blocks east of the Capitol building so I'm on the far end of the mall. I'm right off Pennsylvania Avenue, too, so it's a fairly straight shot to work."

"I wonder if they provide parking for the press," Lorelai said. "Or at least have the space."

"The fewer expenses the better," Rory said. "I want to use my car as little as possible. I think I'll be signing it up for an urban care share program. It's a great neighborhood and I love the apartment, but I still have some sticker shock over it."

"But you said that it was a steal," Luke said, confused.

"For what it is and the neighborhood, absolutely," Rory agreed.

"You should see the place, Luke," Lorelai said. "Breakfast nook, high ceilings, lots of closets, and the place is 200 years old -"

"I'll see it in a minute, Lorelai, won't I?" Luke asked. "Or am I going to be blindfolded the whole time?"

Lorelai stuck her tongue out at him and he shook his head with disdain. Rory smiled to herself and began to plot in her head where she was going to put all her things that they were dragging in the trailer behind them. She didn't have much, she would have to buy more, but that was okay with her. It was her first apartment, really. She had lived in the dorms, then in Paris's apartment, then in Logan's apartment, then in hotel rooms while on the campaign trail. This was her first time setting up house and it was rather exciting for her.

It was part of a very quaint row house, tall and narrow but two floors. The bottom floor was the living spaces - the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the pantry. The backdoor led to a patio and backyard garden which was shared by the person who owned the other side of the row house. Upstairs in a loft-like space was the bedroom with a cathedral rail overlooking the living room. The upstairs room was huge, with sloped ceilings and a crawl space storage attic off to the side. The full bathroom was up there, as well, with a separate shower and bathtub for some reason. It was all hardwood floors, and longer than it was wide, but it was beautiful. The house had truly been built 200 years ago but restored perfectly. It was a steal. Where she was living had been the servants' quarters, which was why it was a floor shorter than the home to which it was joined.

It took very little time to move Rory into her new home, especially with the help of her kind, thirty-something landlords. She ordered pizza and beer, having her new neighbors over to feast on every mover's staple diet as the beginning of payment for their assistance. They owned the whole place, renting out next door to help them with their mortgage. They had built it out to be a guest house but times were tough, and they needed what money they could get. Rory walked in able to pay six months up front and with a steady, worthwhile job. They jumped to have her as a tenant as quickly as she jumped to be their tenant.

Rory found it charming, their little haven in the city of DC. The neighborhood was quiet, but near a lot of restaurants and bars and shops, and it was also right in downtown. She couldn't have done any better, she was certain of it. Matt and Reagan knew having a tenant for a few years was an investment and weren't interested in gouging someone while earning their money back. Rory promised to not touch the garden in the backyard once they found out she had a black thumb but she did promise to pull the weeds from time to time since she also had access to the back yard.

"The pretty, blossoming ones, those are flowers, honey, don't pick those," Lorelai said.

"Adorable, Mom, really," Rory said. "Coming from the woman who had a town resolution passed which disallowed you from owning pets."

"Really?" Reagan asked with amusement.

"Which is ironic, considering I managed to keep my kid clothed and fed just fine," Lorelai said. "Yet they obviously didn't ban me from procreating."

"They could hardly stop you," Luke muttered.

"Pardon me if it's rude, but you must have been a baby when you had Rory," Reagan said. Her husband, Matt, shot her a look. Apparently, she had these sorts of conversations about people all the time because she already was reaching out to shush him before he even looked at her.

"I was 16," Lorelai said. "And she somehow lived through it. Hard to believe it, really."

"Especially if you knew the amount of coffee this woman made her child consume by kindergarten," Luke said sorely.

"I forced her into nothing," Lorelai defended herself.

"I always wondered why I was shorter than you," Rory returned. "You stunted my growth."

"I didn't let you drink coffee until you were in your teens," Lorelai defended herself. "Not caffeinated coffee, anyway."

"Really?" Rory asked.

Lorelai nodded. "I always made decaf, and Luke knew to pour you decaf," she said.

"Huh," she said, pondering that. "No wonder I always thought everyone else made their coffee too strong and that's why I got jittery."

"Nah, it's because Mama pulled a fast one on you and I didn't give you the caffeinated brew until you were older," Lorelai said. "Mama smart."

"So I'm shorter for no apparent reason?" Rory asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the Cheetos, Jolly Ranchers, and pizza diet you were raised on," Luke said.

"Hey! Sometimes I let her get vegetables!"

"I will be in charge of our kid's diet," Luke insisted, thrusting a thumb towards himself. "I will be. No more screwing up your kid's diet. No offense, Rory."

"None taken," she said, sending a surprised look of interest to her mother to gauge her reaction to Luke's announcement. She was shrugging.

"Go ahead and think so, but I'll be slipping him candy while you're force feeding him peas," Lorelai said, then switched to a sing song voice. "I'll be his fa-vo-rite."

"We'll see," Luke grumbled.

Saying goodbye to her mother and Luke the next day was more difficult than she thought it would be. She knew no one here, had no easy way to meet anyone here, and had nothing to turn to. At Yale, there had been Paris and books and learning and a whole new social world where everyone was waiting to meet everyone else. It was different in DC. She was new, she didn't know anyone, and what's more, this was an insider kind of town. She'd have to make friends, and fast. There was going to be very little learning curve on this job, if any.

She reported in to work to let them know she had arrived should they need her to go in for anything. But she wouldn't begin for a few days, 10 days prior to inauguration. The transition was being handled by the old crew and the person covering this administration wanted to move out of DC so it would be easy for her to take over. Now if only she could take over all his connections and relationships. She knew a lot of people on the Obama campaign but she didn't know well much of his staff. It wouldn't matter, perhaps, because every few years there was fresh blood to get to know. She began quizzing herself on the most nuanced histories of the current Senators and Congress members, the lobbyists of importance who would be worth keeping an eye on for breaking the new rules, the issues most pressing to the Congressional and Senatorial schedules. She quizzed herself day and night on military lingo and the history of several of the most pressing conflicts. Although she knew a lot about these things already, she needed to know everything they knew, be as smart as they were, and she was nowhere near prepared, she realized. She was too young, too inexperienced. She had done well covering the campaigning, knew the issues, but the history.... That was going to take work.

The time passed all too quickly. She spent the daytime alternating between American political history on tape as she unpacked, and shopping for new things for her place. She did get to meet her predecessor, who told her that she was lucky to be coming into a fresh house, a fresh administration, a fresh house and senate. The elections this year had been one big overthrowing of the government, with a Democratic Senate and House and a Democrat in the Oval Office. It was going to be exciting but he just had to get out of there. It sucked up all his time and he was about to lose his girlfriend to San Diego so he was out of there as quickly as he could. He was off to marry that girl. Rory smiled to herself at the romantic nature of it, sacrificing this great post in order to follow what the love of his life needed from him. He knew her direction was more important to her than his was to him - and he made her the priority. It was sweet.

Logan came to visit for the inauguration but she had no time for him except in the 9 hours she had at home before she had to return to work. By then, she had already been on television asking the president a question which wasn't so intelligent and not smoothly delivered but she had known the camera was on her and she had momentarily been wrecked by the realization of where her career had landed her at such a young age. But Obama, in his ever suave and kind manner, shielded his eyes from the lights a moment to look at her and smiled in a pleased sort of way, welcoming Miss Gilmore to his press room, glad she had made her way here from the trail, before he answered her question. It had floored Rory, to the point of hardly hearing his answer, that he remembered who she was. She was glad there was tape to watch, and her recording device to refer to. It had all been a blur that first week.

Then it hit.

Hit the ground running, first 100 days, first 100 hours, even. What would his first bill passed be? What were his Cabinet assignments doing? Did his campaign staff remain to help him run his administration? Who was looking to ruin the president's agenda? What was the First Lady's agendas? What was he going to do about the wars? About Gitmo? About obesity? About education? Healthcare? Foreign relations, or lack thereof?

When Logan was there, she didn't have as much time for him as she thought she might. He didn't mind, though, as his workdays could also be accomplished while he was there. He always seemed to have a business associate who needed meeting and greeting, regardless of the city he was in. His network of people was world-wide, she knew, and she ought to be used to it. He was busy during the day and they came together at night, making love until they collapsed to sleep, and sweetly spending a morning or two together before he had to return home. It wasn't much time together - they had a solid web cam relationship going - but they didn't mind, either. They were both swamped with work and creating their own lives. Rory never thought twice about Logan's love for her, nor he question hers - they were content with the situation as it was. The distance wasn't as crushing to them as it had been in college. It, in fact, felt to Rory it wouldn't be all that different if they shared a city. She saw so little of anyone but coworkers and the White House.

It was only moments like when her mother went into labor that Rory wished Logan was there to share it. Rory got permission to skip out on work for two days and arrived at the hospital only hours after her baby brother had been born. She knew there was no way to get her boyfriend there to meet her little brother in time. She didn't miss his presence so keenly when it was just them, but she did miss having someone there to share in her family and private moments. As she held her mother's little boy, Rory felt a longing for what her mother had, on which she seemed to almost be intruding at this moment. Luke's adoring, protective gaze was fixed on his soon to be wife, his son, and his almost-daughter. Everything he would die for was in the room at the same time. She wanted that, too.

"He's lovely," Rory said quietly, holding him close to her heart. "Have you decided on a name?"

"Taylor," Lorelai said, which made Rory laugh and Luke scowl.

"Not funny," Luke growled.

"Evan," Lorelai said, smiling. "Evan Lucas Danes."

She smiled. "It's great," she said. "It really is."

"It's the only name we both jumped at," Luke explained.

"No, it's nice, it really is," Rory said. "It's a strong, independent man's name."

When Rory called Logan that night, she got weepy talking about her little brother: the inexplicable jealousy, the joy she felt for her mother, and the panic she saw in the face of Luke as he realized what he had done. He teased her about getting crazy over babies until he realized she wasn't in that kind of a mood and he simply comforted her the best he could from where he was. She didn't know why it was so upsetting except perhaps she was jealous that the baby got a grown up mom, and a dad in the house. She was jealous that she was no longer Luke and Lorelai's daughter - they had a child together and however ridiculous it was to feel such envy at 24, she felt it all the same.

"You have a better relationship with your mother than almost anybody else on the planet, Rory," Logan said.

"But I already have friends," Rory said. "There's this part of me that wonders what I missed by not having those fights, those boundaries, that rebellion in my adolescence, a dad who scared my boyfriends to death, and a mom who made me eat vegetables and go to bed at a reasonable time."

"If I may," Logan interjected. "Christopher, Luke, and Lorelai are a fierce trio for a boyfriend to contend with, Ace."

"Um, my dad wants to be besties with you," Rory pointed out.

"Well, who wouldn't?" he teased, but she was in no mood to be teased still, so he resumed what he had been saying, "Don't forget, Rory, you didn't really need her help to be good. She's always said you were a piece of cake or she doesn't know if she could have done it as well as she did."

Rory shook her head, though she knew he couldn't see it. He didn't understand and she was feeling upset enough about it that she didn't want to try to explain herself further. It didn't feel worth the effort. She ended the call with Logan abruptly, unsettled by the conversation. These emotions were very private, and he hadn't understood. His own envy of her idyllic upbringing was probably to blame for it, and understandably so. When it came to family life, she could sometimes have things to be unhappy about, whether they were seen as legitimate or not, but Logan's own cold family made it difficult for him to empathize or even simply listen without disagreeing. Still, she occasionally felt them and had to discover where they came from. It, perhaps, came from the "what if" factor of how her life might have been different, or she might have been different, if she'd been raised in a normal household. Those dinners Dean's mom cooked with everyone gathered around the table were some of her favorite memories.

Then again, Rory loved their take-out extravaganzas and movie nights. They never lacked for conversation, so the dinner table wasn't needed to facilitate familial relationships. Lorelai was so invested in her daughter's happiness that she made sure they were always close, and always knew what was going on in each other's lives. Rory couldn't think of a single experience with her mother she'd trade, not even the unpleasant ones. Perhaps she was suffering from "grass is greener" syndrome and a small dose of jealousy. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth losing any more sleep over, she decided, though she did still. But whether that was from her dichotomous feelings over the birth of her brother or her unsatisfying conversation with Logan, she couldn't tell.


	5. Nuptials 1

_**One of my favorite parts about the show was its ability to portray characters sympathetic and likable, even against one's wishes. For instance, people can be both Christopher and Luke fans, Logan and Jess fans. So for those worrying this will turn into a Lit fic, worry not. I am a fan of both, but this is categorized as a Rogan fic and will remain such. However, to ignore that there were some very real issues to hash out (which hadn't yet been done on the show) between Jess and Rory would be unrealistic, even in the world of fan fiction. He'll be very much a part of the Gilmore's lives as Luke joins the family, and it's only suiting that they manage to find a way to leave their past in their past. So, with that said, thanks for all the comments and criticisms as always and for sticking out the story I'm trying to finish.**_

* * *

It was back to work like normal. She only had a few months before she'd need time off again for the ever pending nuptials of Lorelai and Luke in late August and there was a lot to accomplish in the meantime. After taking the time for the wedding, she knew it would be a long time before she could request such large chunks of time off again so she was utilizing it for what it was worth. She had to ask Logan to cut down his visits from his standard every 2-3 weeks to 3-4 weeks. There was simply too much to do.

However exhausting, the job was rewarding. A sleeping schedule became occasional as she was always on a different time zone. She was usually invited to be part of the press pool on the president's trips abroad and Air Force One was racking up some hefty mileage as Obama began mending fences across the globe. Rory would sometimes be home only two or three days in a single month. While it reminded her of the exhaustive pace of the campaign trail, he was actually accomplishing something by shaking all these hands. He was trying to unite the world. It was bearing a strong resemblance of the dream job she didn't know it would be. After all, she already needed a second passport.

The summer was blistering in DC and Logan griped about it regularly, but enjoyed making her deal with his complaining and his sweat. Then the fortuitous news came through that President Obama was taking his first vacation at Camp David in July for 10 days, and Rory got her first chance to breathe as most of the press got to cut down on staff. Logan wasted no time on this, booking a vacation for them to finally have some time together. He stole her away for a week to the coast of Chile, touring the wine district and driving down the shore.

They reveled in their freedom, the poor Spanish they spoke, the sunshine, the lack of time keeping devices, the hours spent in bed, the attempt to get through customs with way more wine than they should have purchased, eventually sacrificing some of it as a bribe to the customs officials to let them bring it in. Oh, the power of money. It was just the hiatus from reality that they needed and she felt incredibly comfortable and at ease with him when it was done. Part of her regretted not using that time to get to know her city with Logan at her side but never could she argue with an impromptu visit to South America. This was the Logan she remembered from college, sweeping her off her feet and whisking her away. It was lovely and romantic.

He'd see her again, he said, in 5 weeks for her mother's wedding. It seemed long but having just spent more time with him at once than she had in 7 months, she felt more prepared to do so than ever. She was requesting a lot of time off for the first year but she knew she wouldn't be getting anything at the holidays. She could, perhaps, manage a quick overnight trip at Christmas, or even Thanksgiving day if she drove quickly. There would probably only be fluff stories around that time, and the paper would more readily accept an AP story as its own instead of their reporter's. it was up to her to use her judgment on when to utilize that card for vacation. It was hard to imagine the lives the White House staffers must lead - she only had to write about what they managed to live. What an impossible task they held!

Upon returning, Rory rummaged through her mail and found a postcard with a vintage picture of Ayn Rand on the front, which made her breath catch as she realized immediately who it was from. It was a tribute to their never ending debate over the merits of their respective favored authors. He wrote his congratulations, not only on her new baby brother but on her job and her bumbling success before the president. He commented on how she grew more confident with every growing week and she knew he was trying to boost her confidence, and quietly letting her know that he watched, and he cared. He also wrote about his girlfriend, and Rory could tell she was nothing like this woman. She was a good one, though, and he felt he might love her. He wanted to let her know he planned on bringing her to Luke's wedding (where he would be best man) and he imagined she would bring Logan, and he hoped they could all be friends.

It was a conciliatory post card, kind enough in language, but she felt it lacked his voice. Perhaps because she no longer knew him. Perhaps because he used more than 10 words to express an idea and that alone didn't sound like him. Perhaps because there was no challenge to her issued in his words. Then she realized she did know him still. He had rehearsed this post card. He scribbled carelessly, scratching away his mistakes, writing over his letters. He often compared himself to da Vinci, jokingly, in that way. But this was written carefully, with no mistakes. He had decided on this wording long before sending it. He was careful of what message he was sending. She felt inexplicably sad that her relationship with Jess had regressed to a point of editing their speech in front of each other, even if that was what was appropriate and even understandable considering the last time she had seen him.

She returned him a carefully scripted post card with Hemingway on the front, thanking him for his well wishes and welcoming him gladly to the wedding. She was looking forward to seeing him, and meeting his girlfriend, and agreed they should all get to know each other again. The meticulous plotting of conversation felt unnatural and she hated it. But, in Jess's words, "it is what it is" and, for better or worse, life went on.

By the time the wedding came around, Rory felt the need for another vacation and was psyched about her long weekend with Stars Hollow. The idea of making Luke a part of her family finally thrilled her, not only for the happiness it would bring her mother, the stability it would bring her brother, but the joy Rory herself would feel to watch the man who had fought so hard for the Gilmores finally reap the fruits of his labor.

The 6 hour drive was a welcome, peaceful reprieve from the constancy of noise, bustling, and business she had become accustomed to. Even her vacation to Chile had been chock full of activities, some outdoor, some very, very indoors. Her phone in her purse, her schedule far away from her, she drove to music that was too loud. Her nocturnal system was so negotiable, she didn't even mind leaving at 5:30 in order to beat the traffic and make it to Stars Hollow before noon. She was simply glad to have the road to herself.

Her heart soared as she neared the town, seeing familiar signs on the highway which told her she was close. She got antsy all of a sudden, anxious to be in her home again, however altered it had been over the past couple of years to add more space and rooms. By the time she pulled into the driveway, it was all she could do to not run up to the door and hug the whole house. Fortunately, Luke and Lorelai had been keeping an eye out for her and came out as soon as she drove up.

"My goodness, look at him, he's huge!" Rory exclaimed after she'd fiercely hugged her mother.

"Thank you?" Lorelai responded.

Rory moved past her mother to Luke, who was holding the baby. "May I?" she asked. Luke willingly handed over the 4 month old and gave his soon-to-be-official-step-daughter a hug in so doing. She smiled up at him before turning her attention entirely to her little brother. "Oh, he's adorable."

"He's got Luke's sourpuss face," Lorelai said.

"And your horseshit attitude," Luke returned.

"Stop it, he's way cuter than both of you," Rory replied with a grin.

"Listen, Rory, we wanted to ask you about something and it's why we were trying to call you," Lorelai said.

"You were trying to call me?"

"You mean you weren't ignoring Mommy's calls?" Lorelai asked.

"No, I had my phone in my purse," she said. "What's going on?"

"Well, we needed to talk to you about something and wanted to give you time to think about it before you answered," Lorelai said.

"That doesn't sound good," Rory said, frowning at her mother.

Luke made a face. "She always sets it up like that," he said.

"Always? Have I heard this news before?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, well, now we don't have a lot of time so I think you should just let me get it out," Lorelai said. "So Liz is staying at Luke's, and is already settled in there with TJ and the two little ones, because their house is under repair. We didn't really have room for them here."

"And we didn't want to make room for them for an extended stay," Luke added. "I mean, you've met my sister, haven't you? And TJ? Now picture their kids."

"The inn is completely full," Lorelai continued. "So would you and Logan want to stay at your grandmother's?"

"Why do I get the feeling that's not the whole question?" Rory asked.

"Because the whole question includes that Jess and his girlfriend are staying here, in the spare room upstairs," Luke said, giving Lorelai an exasperated look. "And they're going to be here in about twenty minutes."

"Oh," Rory said. "Well, I don't think it would be a problem. I mean, Jess and I have kind of made our peace."

"Really?"

"Sure," she replied. "I'll let Logan know but I can't see a problem. Really, we dated like a lifetime ago. I think it'd be fine. Does he know I'll be here?"

"We told him it would be a possibility," Luke said. "He was fine with it."

"Okay," Rory said, processing it. "That's okay."

But her stomach was churning nervously at the thought of seeing Jess again. She didn't know why. It was disarming. She was almost 25 years old. They had broken up more than 7 years ago. Even with their recent history, it only amounted to a few hours of their lives over the course of the past 7 years. There was no reason to still feel thrown by knowing she was going to see a lot of him.

"I'm going to get my stuff and settle into my room, if that's alright," Rory said, handing the baby back to Luke. "Give me a few minutes?"

"If you're not okay with this, kid, you take priority, you're my daughter," Lorelai said. "You stay here, we'll put them somewhere else. We'll move Liz and TJ and the kids here."

Rory shook her head. "No, it's totally fine."

But it wasn't. She closed her bedroom door behind her and felt her breath catching in her throat. It wasn't totally fine at all. She'd see him in the morning. She'd see him when she got out of the shower. She'd see him go to bed with his girlfriend. He'd watch her go to bed with Logan. Why was she getting so worked up about it? Her feelings on the topic had the same hazy, undefined irksome quality that her jealousy concerning her brother had. She needed to compose herself.

She was unpacking in a rather rowdy way in her bedroom, music up a bit too loud so she couldn't hear any conversation, nor the car door shut outside, nor the front door open. She did, however, hear the jubilant welcoming from Luke and Lorelai, a greeting he had not been used to getting when walking into the Gilmore home, no doubt. Normally speaking, Lorelai's terse silence had greeted him at the door but now she would undoubtedly be hugging him as the family member he was soon to be.

Rory couldn't help but turn down the music and tune into the newcomer's conversation. She couldn't hear anything they were saying, only the sounds of their voices. She heard Luke's distinctly, and her mother's. There it was. Jess's. Her breath caught again and she felt tears rise in her eyes. Oh my God, what was the matter with her? She cleared her throat and listened. No other voice. His girlfriend must be a quiet one, or they had already done introductions, and now were sitting down to catch up with each other. She couldn't hide in here forever. She had to go out there confident and carefree, much as Jess always had been.

Still, she wasn't prepared to see him in front of her and by the look on his face, he hadn't been either. He must have seen her car in the driveway but he probably hadn't known she was there and not, perhaps, walking around town. The conversation stopped almost mid-sentence in his mouth when he caught her movements as she slowly entered the room and he gave her a long look, as though he hadn't ever known the sight of her before this day. It had, in fact, been 3 years.

"Hi," Jess said quietly, in that soft way of his. He had always been gentler with her than other people, not all the time, but never was he so gentle towards anyone else. He held now his little cousin and that alone made her melt, the sight of a baby held so carefully in his arms. His hair was cut shorter, his clothes were tidier. He was, clearly, still doing well for himself

"Hi," she returned, leaning on the doorway and not quite coming in.

"It's nice to see you," he said.

"You too," she answered, wishing desperately her mother wasn't here so perhaps they could have a normal conversation. Could they even then? It had been so long. So much history between them, emotional if not actual.

"You're stuttering less now when you ask your questions," Jess said, a glint of teasing in his eyes.

"You've gotten no new manners, it seems," Rory rebutted.

Jess chuckled and returned his focus on the baby. "Can someone take this before I break him?"

"Don't worry, your uncle will be the one to fix it," Lorelai said, accepting her baby.

"May I?" Rory asked, stepping forward, dying for some occupation other than dwelling on the awkwardness she felt.

"God, please, yes," Lorelai said. "I'd forgotten how heavy these things get. Rory was a fatso, I used to have such nice upper arms."

"How could I have been?" Rory asked, taking the baby from her mother. "You underfed me."

"I like to think I was merely keeping you on a supermodel diet," Lorelai said. "You never can start too young."

"I'm so glad you had a son this time around," Rory said. "You terrify me. I have no idea how I turned out alright."

"Give it time, you'll see how screwed up Mommy really made you."

"Reassuring," Rory said. "I'm going to take him around the porch a bit, is that okay?"

"Yeah, of course, go right ahead," Lorelai said. "Just guard his head from the sun."

"Sure," Rory agreed. She gave a smile to the room and softly walked away, through the living room and foyer to the front porch.

Lorelai turned her attention to Jess and opened her mouth to ask a question, but he was already getting up, his eyes fixated on the path Rory had just used to exit. "Excuse me," he said, quitting the room.

Luke and Lorelai watched, with more than a little concern, as Jess followed Rory out onto the porch. They were unlikely to do anything to stop them, understanding they might want to speak in private, to air out the discomfort of getting reacquainted with each other, but it didn't make them feel any better about it.

"Hey."

Rory turned from where she sat on the swinging bench with the baby and started slightly to see Jess coming after her. "Hi," she said quietly. "He's going to sleep, so -"

"No yelling, got it," Jess said.

She smiled. "He also has a Pavlovian response to cursing, from what I hear, so try to keep it PG."

"Not very likely," he said, moving to stand nearer to her. "I, uh, I thought we should have a minute to say hello in private."

Rory raised her eyebrows. "Where's your girlfriend?" she asked.

"Philly," he said. "She'll be down in time for the rehearsal. Where's Logan?"

"San Francisco," Rory said. "It's where he lives. He'll be here for the rehearsal, too."

Jess nodded. "If you don't want me to stay here, that's okay, Rory," he said. "I'd understand."

"You know, this whole 'considerate Jess', I'm not sure I'm really on board," Rory jested.

"I'm serious."

Rory sighed. "I know," she said. "It's really okay. It's been a long time, Jess. We should figure out how to be grown ups and be in the same room together without all this awkwardness."

"Can I sit down?" he asked.

She scooted over and he took that as the permission it was to take the seat next to her. He looked at the sleeping baby in her arms and smiled slightly before fidgeting with his hands. It was unusual to see his hands out of his pockets and she realized how little she knew him anymore. Not even his body language was the same.

"One or both of us was a complete jackass pretty much every time we've seen each other in the last 7 years," Jess said. "I don't like that about us."

"That's history, Jess."

"Yeah, but it's always gotten in our way," he said. "I walked out on you, ran in on you, bludgeoned you, left you again, and popped up to yell at you and make fun of your life."

"Yeah, my life could use some making fun of at that point," Rory said.

"You're still with him."

"Oh, not Logan, no, I meant my life in general at that point," she said. "You were right. I needed to be in school. Logan's driving a Porsche is irrelevant to his worth as a human being. It just was a coincidence that he drove the car of a jerk."

"Right," Jess said. "Not touching that one."

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that."

"I heard he asked you to marry him."

She snapped her head to him. "Who told you that?"

"Luke," he said. "He mentioned it in passing, you graduated, you broke up with your boyfriend in order to not get engaged, you joined the Obama campaign trail, etc."

Rory shook her head. "He proposed in front of my entire family at the graduation party my grandparents threw for me."

"Emily and Richard must've been pissed when you said 'no'."

"Confused, I think, more than anything. But then I left right away so we never talked about it very much."

"Seems he got over it," Jess said.

"We were apart for over a year," Rory said. "We've only been trying again for a year."

Jess nodded in that way which implied he'd already known that information. "Are you happy?"

"Overall, yes," she replied. "Yeah, I think so. Are you?"

Jess looked intently into her eyes and smiled at her. "I get happier every day."

"You're a huge dork."

"Yeah, probably," he said.

"What's your girlfriend's name?" Rory asked.

"Ashley," he said. "Right, who ever thought I'd date someone named Ashley. But, really, she's a great girl. She's more like me. She a bartender and she paints. I think she'll want to take off for California sooner or later and that would be alright for me, obviously, since I like it there."

"What about Truncheon?" Rory asked with surprise.

Jess shrugged. "It's great," he said. "But it wouldn't be more important to me than keeping someone in my life that I wanted around. I'd be okay passing it up."

"Are you writing?"

"A bit, here and there," he said. "But I'm reading more. I can't really afford to take the time off to write."

"I know how that feels," she sympathized.

"What are you talking about? You get paid to write."

"Yeah, articles, factual stories," Rory said. "It's exhausting. It's not for fun."

"Don't you like it?" Jess asked.

"Of course I do," she said. "But don't let anyone tell you it's the writing that gets me that job. Sure, I can churn out an interest piece, too, so that makes me multi-talented. But it's flushing out the facts of a story that make me valuable around there and that's not my specialty."

Jess nodded. "Fair enough. You were never much of a flusher."

"Nope, no flushing here."

He chuckled. "How is it that you're still, in so many ways, the same?"

"You're not at all," Rory said. "Not even from last time I saw you."

"Aren't I? I guess I'd hope for that," he said, more to himself than her, then rapidly changed topics. "You're Lorelai's maid of honor, aren't you?"

Rory nodded, relieved to be done with the previous topic of their impressions of each other. "I am."

"Did you ever think I'd be Luke's best man?"

Rory nodded immediately. "Absolutely," she said. "He's incredibly proud of you and he's always loved you, even when you were a pain in his ass."

"Is April coming?" Jess asked, changing topics rapidly again. He didn't want to delve into their past, when he was a pain in everyone's ass.

She frowned. "Unfortunately, no," Rory said. "She's started at a private academy on a year-round schedule and they're in session currently. Anna would allow her, but April said it's harder than she's used to and she needed to be able to study as much as she could."

"How's Luke feel about that?" Jess asked. "Are they not close enough for him to want to change the date?"

"You know, I don't really know," Rory said. "He goes out to see her as much as he can, which is obviously less since Evan was born, but Anna won't let April come here until she's older. It's unfortunate. Luke would be such a good dad to her. And I'd know - he was such a good father figure to me."

"I know he was," Jess said. "He paid more attention to you than he did to me."

"That isn't true at all," Rory said, frowning with a blush.

"He was more protective of you, at least," Jess said. "And more of a rule-bearer with me."

"True, but he never had to give me any rules," Rory said. "He wasn't my dad, he didn't have the right, and I never wanted to break the rules so it was easy."

"Can I ask you something that is absolutely none of my business?" Jess asked.

"I opt not to answer."

"Sure," Jess said. "When I came to visit here about two years ago, Babette started telling me that you had stolen a boat with that boy you had run off with after you broke up Dean's marriage."

Rory groaned. "Man."

"Is any of that true?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it's absolutely true," she said. "It's what had happened prior to seeing you when you came by with your book. It's what was the matter, what I had to fix."

"Wow, Gilmore," Jess said. "You give me a run for my money as a hoodlum."

"Mom was godawfully pissed at me," Rory said.

"I imagine she was," Jess said. "I suddenly seem like a walk in the park, though, don't I?"

"Jess!" she hissed at him.

He chuckled and she had to smile. He was provoking her a little, but doing it all with a kind smile - this was the part that was new. Never did she have any idea why she confessed her dirty laundry to him except that he was Jess. And before he ever chased after her for her heart, he had adored her mind. Their friendship, even though always tinged by flirtation and history, was the part of their relationship that was easiest to resume, at least with the absence of outside influences.

"I'm glad to see you again."

She smiled. "Me, too," she replied.

"I used to think about what it would be like if you had sought me out after college instead of Logan," Jess said. "We both know you made the right choice, of course. But I don't know quite that either of us have forgiven each other or ourselves for all we've put each other through."

"You're still upset with me?" Rory asked.

"Not really."

"Okay, 'not really' for what?"

"Not wanting 'us' anymore," Jess said quite honestly. "When I completely deserved it. And when I didn't. I'd always been waiting for the day you'd wise up and realize you could do better than me - like Logan. That last time was about the last time I could handle confronting that issue of mine."

"I did always feel I never got to properly apologize to you that night," Rory said. "Not just for that night, but for the last time I'd seen you, too."

Jess shrugged. "It's all very much in our past."

"It is, yes," Rory agreed. "But what are relationships with people if not the history you share?"

"The future you can make," Jess countered. "And I think that's more important, but if our history means you want me to stay somewhere else, I will. This weekend is about Luke, and your mom. Not us. I want to make sure it never is. I'm not that guy who causes scenes anymore. I'm sorry I ever was. I had no idea how to be your boyfriend, and, truly, if Logan knows how, he's a better man for it because I had no idea."

"Yeah, makes two of us," Rory said. "We were kids, Jess. I had no idea how to be there for someone like you. I didn't make you talk to me, I just let you go towards the end when you were being a jerk. I started to think of you like everyone else did and I was sick of chasing you, trying to make you happy. So I didn't go after you, and I've always wondered if you'd have run away from here if I had."

"I would've," Jess said without hesitation. "Eventually. You couldn't have changed that. Maybe it would've been six weeks or six months later, after I really destroyed your heart. I never would have been able to stay, not after the damage I did. It's taken me years to be able to confront and apologize for it all. I wasn't capable of doing it then."

"I'm sorry that we were always so much drama," Rory said.

"There was a lot of happiness too, Rory," Jess said in a quiet voice, looking away. "You were my first love for a reason. My seven months with you was the first happiness, acceptance, and kindness I'd ever experienced."

"Considering how much we fought and how half of the time we were 'doing our thing' I was with Dean, I find that difficult to believe, and very sad."

"Yeah, isn't it?"

At that moment, Lorelai carefully, slowly opened the door, giving them plenty of warning. They both looked at the door expectantly as she emerged and she gave them a full, beaming grin. "I want to feed my child, and I also want to feed the baby," Lorelai said. "Shall we?"

Rory smiled. "Is that your way of saying you want to get stuffed on food so you can freak out about how small the dress is so when you wear it on your wedding day you'll feel slender and elegant in it?" she asked.

"You're Mommy's little princess," Lorelai said. "Yes, it's soon to be dress fitting time. Sookie is almost here, and Liz is meeting us at the shop."

They ate a fantastic lunch that Sookie somehow, miraculously, whipped into being out of nothing. Luke and Sookie in the kitchen together was something special, the two of them bickering about coriander versus cilantro, as though the two pieces of the same plant were mutual exclusive. Lorelai just watched adoringly as her soon to be husband made lunch with her best friend for a house full of her favorite people... and Jess.

It didn't give her the warm fuzzies to see how intently Jess and Rory enjoyed debating with each other the same way they always had. They had a strong conversational bond, at the very least, that had never waned, not even in their hardest days. The two of them had never been at a loss for something to say to each other. Lorelai gave a look to Luke and his returned implied that he saw it, and she should back off. But she couldn't help it. She didn't want trouble. And Jess with Rory had always been trouble.

"He wouldn't do anything, Lorelai," Luke whispered softly to her in the next room as she got her purse together to go to the shop. "Neither would she."

"How do you know?" she asked him back.

"Because I know," Luke returned.

"Good answer."

"Because he's not a 18 year old punk anymore, Lorelai," he said. "He's a grown man with his own business, his own life, his own girlfriend. He's a different person."

"So is Rory," Lorelai said. "But look at them."

"They've always been friends," Luke said. "It's good they're trying to figure it out. They were awkward at his opening 3 years ago, to say the least. This is a lot better. Jess is using full sentences, Rory isn't fidgeting. It's a good thing. They have 2 days before Ashley and Logan get here, then they'll be going their separate ways. Enjoy this weekend - it's ours."

Reluctantly, she agreed to try. She was pleased to take Rory away, all the same. Jess's ambiguous look at Rory's departure irked Lorelai and she couldn't explain it in any way other than it was an old feeling rising up. She'd always felt he was the fox in the henhouse. She thought well and kindly of him until he turned those eyes to her daughter and she inevitably saw a curiosity and interest spark in him when he looked at Rory. That wouldn't be so bad except whenever she had seen that, it had meant trouble for Rory.


	6. Nuptials 2

_**My verbosity knows almost no bounds... But it's almost done. Another two chapters and it'll be done. I'm always interested in people's opinions about the turn of the story. Truly, it's your input that helps me figure out how I want to go with this thing and I'm appreciative.  
**_

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The next days passed in a whirlwind. There were dress fittings, tux fittings, and a low-key combined bachelor and bachelorette party. Jess and Rory each brought their respective relative to the gazebo downtown, blindfolded, for a scavenger hunt leading to the party which was sure to delight Lorelai and irritate the hell out of Luke. Jess had to bully Luke into it, Lorelai had gone willingly, knowing she was being put up to something and was eager to see it come to fruition. At the end of the hunt was the party, where the entire town had convalesced to give them the reception they weren't going to be able to see all of because they were leaving on their honeymoon, as was tradition, halfway through the reception. It was what they had wanted, and Lorelai was eternally grateful.

It was, finally, the day of the rehearsal dinner, and also when Logan and Ashley were to arrive. Rory walked out of her bedroom, bleary eyed and yawning, wearing Logan's boxers and her own tank top. She stopped when she saw Jess in the kitchen, his eyes quickly scanning her and looking away. He knew he shouldn't, and he hadn't been able to help himself, and she immediately was awake, on her guard.

Dammit.

"Hey, good morning," she said.

"Hey yourself," Jess said.

"Where is everyone?" Rory asked.

"Luke went to Hartford to pick up the rings so he is picking up Ashley at the airport later," Jess said. "And your mom went to the inn to finish up some business."

"Ah," she said.

"There's coffee," he said, pointing.

She shuffled towards it, fixing herself a cup, then also a bowl of cereal. She sat down at the table next to him and he passed her the front page without her asking. Something so simple, he knew her still. It brought a smile to her face and she accepted it with an expression of thanks. They sat quietly, not speaking, reading their separate sections of the paper, swapping from time to time. It went on for over an hour before she knew she ought to get on with her day and get dressed.

"Jess, you're remarkably pleasant company," Rory said when she got up from the table.

"We haven't spoken in over an hour," Jess said, confused. He saw her wink at him and he rolled his eyes. "Hilarious, Gilmore."

She put her dishes in the dishwasher and headed to the bathroom. She had just finished brushing her teeth when she heard the front door open and shut and a bag drop to the floor.

"Ace! Where are you?"

Excellent, it was Logan! She pounded out of the bathroom and ran across the house to greet him at the front door. He laughed and accepted her around him as he always did, her legs around his waist and her mouth on his. She saw nothing but him and he held her up easily, one hand supporting her body, the other wrapped tightly around her back. She laughed and stopped kissing him in order to hug him tighter.

"Don't you call? Or knock, for that matter?" she asked.

"I haven't knocked here since Thanksgiving," he said.

"Hmm, hmm, fair enough," she said, kissing him again before holding him tightly to her. "Oh, I missed you."

"I missed you, too, Ace," Logan replied. He pulled her face back and gazed at it, memorizing her face, before kissing her soundly. "Yeah, I missed you."

She laughed, tucking her face into his neck to kiss him under his jaw before she felt him tightening a little. She stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Jess standing there, awkwardly, figuring out how to intrude and how not to. He had, apparently, moved from the kitchen to the living room with the paper and neither of them had noticed in their rush to greet each other.

"Sorry," he said. "For intruding. I -"

"Jess, good to see you," Logan said, letting go of Rory to extend his hand to the other man. "Hey, I owe you an apology for the last time we met. I was an ass. I hope we can start over."

Rory need not wonder what Logan would do in any given awkward social situation anymore. He had meant it. He wasn't jealous. He trusted her. And he forgave their entire past. Jess shook his hand willingly enough.

"Yeah, likewise, I wasn't all sunshine and kittens myself," Jess said.

"It's alright," Logan said. "Ancient history. I hear your second book is selling well."

"Well enough," Jess replied, surprised that Logan knew about his writing.

"I read some of it on the plane over here," he told him. "It's very good. Rory hadn't been kidding about your talent."

"Well, that's completely - thank you," Jess said, somewhat at a loss for words.

"That does it, I've never seen Jess Mariano at a loss for words," Rory teased. "Logan, you must be exhausted."

"Yes, but I'm staying up," he said. "I'm on little sleep, but I've got to stay up. As long as you're not showered, want to stretch our legs, take a walk, get some coffee? I've been indoors and sitting for 5 weeks."

She smiled. "Sure."

"Jess? Want to come?" Logan invited.

"Thanks, but Luke will be back anytime with Ashley so I should be here," Jess said.

"Let's get changed, eh, Ace?" Logan asked.

Jess was still at the kitchen table with the paper when Logan and Rory emerged from her room together only moments later, both in comfortable clothes. He waved a single hand at them wordlessly as they clasped hands and jauntily exited the house.

"How was your flight?" Rory asked as they closed the door behind them.

"I always love a good red-eye," Logan said. "I managed about 4 hours of sleep so that's not too bad."

"Not at all!" Rory agreed with surprise. "I never can sleep on flights, no matter how long they are."

"It must be my diet of scotch and work," he replied. He slid an arm around her waist and sneaked a grope at his girlfriend. "Sometimes I forget what hot girl you are, Ace. We should've stayed at home so I could have my way with you."

"Yeah, because THAT wouldn't make you immediately go to sleep afterwards," Rory said, lifting a face glowing with adoration to him.

Logan looked around on the stretch of quiet, woodsy road they were on. He grabbed her by the hand and yanked, running with her into the shrubbery.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing?" Rory asked, ducking branches and trying to pull back.

He stopped suddenly and turned to her. "You can pick the spot, Ace," Logan said, pulling her solidly against him. He leaned down, melding his mouth to hers. She moaned her compliance and deepened the kiss, holding him tightly and digging her hands into his back. "But I haven't seen my girlfriend in 5 weeks and, I'm not gonna lie, I won't hear a thing you say if we talk now. I'll be checking out your ass the whole time."

"Mmm," Rory said, and slid a hand between them, stroking him through his clothes. He gripped her desperately and trembled every so slightly. "Further back from the road, Huntzberger."

Logan began taking off his shirt as they walked and she searched the wooded area for the most privacy. She found a patch of grass where the trees were higher and light reached the forest floor. It was hidden on one side by a pile of trees felled by storms. It was ideal and they both went for it, seeing it at the same time.

"You know," Logan said, unbuttoning from the bottom of her shirt. "Everyone thinks you're this innocent girl. But you're a feral, wild, adversary in bed, Ace."

"You don't say," Rory said, a blush creeping into her cheeks along with the makings of a pleased smile.

"I almost don't mind waiting a few weeks to be with you again," Logan said, kneeling on the ground in front of her as she started to lay back on the shirt he'd put down for her. "Because it's so damn good when we are."

"Stop talking about it," Rory complained. "And do something about it."

He unbuttoned his jeans but changed his mind, reaching for her instead. He pulled her panties down and off, and hiked her skirt up. His hands urgently, even a little aggressively, parted her thighs and he began to lick and nip at the bud above the moist cavern he was most interested in. She immediately began to squirm and sunk her fingers deep in his hair, tugging him towards her.

"It's not nice to tease," Rory said, but gasped out the last word as he ended the teasing, sliding two fingers into her as soon as she had begun to talk. "Oh!"

"I know your buttons, Rory," Logan reminded her, then returned his mouth to better occupation.

"I know," she said, heaving out breaths. "I know. I know. I know."

Logan chuckled, hearing her frantic breathing, clearly having not expected to go from 0-60 as they had. Her body was trying to catch up with her mind. He reached up with his free hand, unclasping the front of her bra and closing a hand around her breast, massaging gently, trying to remain as coordinated as he could. His body was so hungry for her, for every piece of her flesh, for every drop of sweat that rolled from her smooth, supple skin, for every twitch of her muscles that he caused with his ministrations. Fuck, he missed her. He felt desire for nothing but returning to this body, this woman, this demon who simultaneously reined him in and set him free at once.

He moved up her body, paying oral homage to her breasts, his fingers still working on her, creating more moisture, bringing her nearer a climax. She was hardly able to pay attention to much except what he was doing to her now. A cool breeze drifted through the glen and piqued her nipples to even firmer attention, if possible. It felt glorious, strands of sunshine on them and the rush of trees in the breeze their soundtrack. He finished his trek up her body to kiss her mouth, quieting her ever increasing ecstatic moans. She clutched him desperately, her nails digging into his shoulder blades and arousing him beyond any further restraint.

She hardly had time to complain about the absence of his fingers for he immediately replaced them with his swollen, fierce member. She sighed and gasped all at once, and they found their rhythm with an ease that only came with years of practice. She wrapped her legs around him, bringing him to her and rocking her hips to meet him, sending him as deep into her as possible.

"You're amazing, you feel goddamn amazing," Logan swore, biting into her neck.

With a soft yell, he felt her tense, pulsate, shudder, and begin to relax. She was coming, he knew this feeling, and he was done holding himself back. He pinned her down and savagely hammered into her. She shook furiously, her mouth open but no sounds coming out as he extended her orgasm while reaching his own. With a deep, guttural sob, he ruptured inside of her and felt he could neither cease, nor continue. Brilliant spots appeared in front of his open eyes and he could no longer see, his entire body afire with electricity and warmth.

"Oh... my... God," Logan rasped out.

Though they were in the open, neither had a concern for covering up or making themselves decent as they lay silently together recovering for the following 15 minutes. Their bodies were too sweaty to cuddle but her fingers crawled a few inches away to lace with his. They lay this way, panting, remembering, reveling until Rory was recovered enough to remember that everything the Maker had given her was out on display for the world to see should anyone else decide to go traipsing through the woods that day.

"Good idea," Logan said as she began covering herself again.

They were both still struck somewhat speechless and they had gotten back to the road and walked in silence, hand in hand, for a few minutes before Logan spoke.

"Whenever anyone asks how I can do a long distance relationship," he said, "I'm going to recount for them every bit of the sex you and I just had."

It was a hell of a way to break the silence and Rory laughed.... And laughed... And laughed. Logan grinned at her giggling and she had to stop walking, laughing uncontrollably.

"Have you finally cracked, Ace?" Logan asked. "Is this it? Am I finally committing you and picking up other chicks by telling a sob story about the girl I once loved and still visit in the asylum? It's not going to be a bad life, I'll get my love fix while wiping drool from your slack jawed mouth, and my sex with the Candy's of the world. Oh, don't cry for me, honey, I'll be just fine."

She was indeed crying, laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face. She grasped his shirt and brought their bodies together, embracing him tightly, possibly tighter than she'd ever hugged him before. It's what finally calmed her laughter and when she pulled away, he had a bemused, albeit perplexed, look on his face. She shook her head to reassure him, a smile on her lips, and kissed him soundly.

"I just love you," Rory said. "Man, I love you. And I've missed you like hell."

Logan sighed, kissed her lips lightly and kept an arm around her shoulders as he resumed their walk. He wanted coffee more than she did, it was clear. "I love you, too, Rory," he said. "You know that."

"I have some idea of it," Rory said.

"We should be talking about this long-distance thing," Logan said. "I'm really starting to hate it."

"You know I still wouldn't see much of you if we lived together," Rory said. "We talked about that. We both travel and work all the time."

"Sure, yeah, I know," Logan said. "But this, what we just did, what we're doing now. We'd have the occasional chance at this once a week. Morning sex sometimes. I'd get to see you shower. Rory, all that stuff is what I missed when we were apart before. It's far worse for me now."

Rory frowned. "We agreed, Logan."

"We did," he said. "And I'm not saying I know what to do about it. I'm not letting you or us go, not again. But I'm damn pissed about the way things are."

"I can't move to California," Rory said.

"Who's asking you to?" Logan asked, and she tensed. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant, I know that. And I can't move to DC, not really, not yet at least."

"So here we are," she said quietly.

"Yeah," Logan said. "Here we are. Better than nothing. But not everything I want. And, Ace, I'm not good at not going out and getting what I want. It's a bad feeling for me to be unhappy about a situation and not rectify it."

"What do we do?" Rory asked. "Neither of us are prepared to move to be together. I'm actually starting to really like this job, but I know it probably isn't forever. I'm just not ready to leave it."

"I guess we just talk about it," he said. "That's what we did wrong before, isn't it? We both made assumptions about each other, about what the other wanted."

"Sure," she agreed.

"And when we were doing well, it's when we were being brutally honest, right?"

"There was some measure of _in vino veritas_ to that phase of our lives," Rory said with a little laugh.

Her mirth helped pass the tense moment, and they simply began talking to each other as they walked, more and more briskly, into town for coffee. By the time they had reached Luke's, they were finding the benefits of talking out their thoughts with each other.

"So to recap?" Rory said. "Because I need lists, and bullet points."

"Nerd."

"Nerd lover," she returned without thinking. "Neither of us are attached to our cities. So that kind of opens it from I have to go to you, or you have to go to me, and it now becomes we have to pick a place together."

"That's some progress, Ace!" he said cheerfully.

"Excuse me, Miss Gilmore, but you have something in your hair," said Kirk, whirring by them on his Segway.

Dumbstruck, furrowed brows crossed the faces of Logan and Rory as they watched him struggle at the curb with his new toy. He jerked back and forth, nearly piling over a few times as he made his way down into the street. A far more coordinated Lulu wasn't far behind him, gently coaching him on how to use it. Rory and Logan watched, perplexed as they continued on their practice laps around the square on their Segways.

Logan reached up and pulled a few stray pieces of nature from her hair, now that Kirk had pointed it out. "Ace, if that guy has a girlfriend and they can make it work, you and I have absolutely no excuse."

The walk back to the house went a little faster as there was no recreational break in the middle, and both had gotten their fuel for the return trip - dark, delicious brew from Luke's. There were considerably more cars in the driveway as they approached and Rory knew they had probably been gone longer than they intended but couldn't care less. The conversation and the sex had both been equally important to her bonding with Logan again as they went into this hectic wedding weekend together.

"Hi there finally!" Lorelai said as they entered. "Logan, I'd hug you but you're disgusting."

"Thank you, Lorelai, I was just about to say the same about you," Logan returned, bowing slightly.

"Did you two actually exercise?" Lorelai asked with some concern. "Logan, you know we Gilmore's don't really do that sort of thing."

"Entirely accidental, I assure you," Rory said.

"It was a coffee run," Logan explained. "Technically."

"You must be Ashley," Rory said, turning a smile to the very pretty, perfectly filled out redhead with Jess. "I'm Rory. It's really nice to meet you. This is Logan."

"Nice to meet you," Ashley replied. "Thanks for having me in your house."

Rory shook her head with a smile, knowing perfectly well what Ashley meant but not letting it be to her credit. "No, no thanks at all," Rory said. "It's not even my house anymore."

"I think we should go get unstinky," Logan said, grabbing Rory's hand.

"I agree," Luke said.

They shared the bathroom and the shower, coupling again as the cool water returned their bodies to a normal temperature while their activities heated them through again. They were quick, hoping to not raise any suspicions. They had already been gone too long on their walk and needed to be speedier about getting ready.

"Rory, I wanted to ask," Sookie said. "How was Chile? Tell me everything! The wine! The food! Ooh, I'm so jealous, I can almost taste it all!"

"Really beautiful," Rory said, collapsing into the couch next to her mother, who was holding Evan. "Logan speaks worse Spanish than I do so it was an adventure. And we drove the coast, tasted the wines, rode some horses, climbed some mountains, you know, just another week for a Gilmore."

"Sounds fantastic," Sookie said. "How was the food?"

"Nearly burned my tongue off sometimes," Rory replied. "But it was amazing."

"The peppers were so absurd that you thought you were going to have an ulcer for sure, but the flavor was so enticing, you kept coming back," Logan said, entering the room. He sat down on the floor at Rory's feet, situating himself next to her legs and leaning back against the couch.

"The flavors are so exquisite that you forget it was ever painful to get there," Rory agreed.

"India and Thailand were just painful," Logan said and she nodded in agreement. "Their non-spicy food is all that foreigners can usually take."

"Did you take notes?" Sookie asked. "I have to know all of it."

"Don't look at me," Rory said, hands up in defense. "If anyone cooks, it's Logan."

"Oh, teach me something before you go back to California, would ya?" Sookie asked Logan eagerly, who acquiesced happily.

"I already have heartburn when you make chili," Jackson complained.

"Live a little, man, buck up," Lorelai said. "Let the woman do her cookin'."

"Ashley, where are you from?" Logan asked, not wanting the entire conversation to exclude Jess and his girlfriend. These situations were awkward enough.

"Alaska, actually," she said.

"Really?" Rory asked with genuine interest, perking up immediately. "I've always wanted to go. How is it?"

"Fantastic, beautiful, monotonous," Ashley replied. "There's nothing to do, nothing to see, no one to know. It's really dull. It's lucky it's beautiful."

"Why did you move to Philly?" Rory asked.

"I got a scholarship to an art school there," she said. "Then I ended up staying. I'm applying for a graduate program in California so I think I'll probably be out there around the new year."

"I hear California is beautiful, too," Rory said. "Have you been before?"

Ashley nodded. "Yes, a few times," she replied. "When we go to visit Jimmy."

Rory tried to stuff down the pang of venom she felt towards Jess at that moment. He'd run away from Rory to go to Jimmy, leaving her without a word, not bringing her in, and yet he had brought Ashley to SEE him. Okay, so some part of her remembered that hurt. She was surprised it was still there. She thought through what she felt right away, knowing it was more a feeling of being gypped. She had tried to teach the boy to love, and someone else reaped the benefits. Of course he was going to bring his girlfriend to his dad. Just as he now brought her to his mom.

"I think I'd want to live in southern California, too," Ashley continued. "Just to get the opposite end of the spectrum."

"Considering you've already lived in Alaska so cold weather has got to be really old news by now," Rory managed to say.

"Right, exactly," Ashley said with a smile. "Dad's a fisherman and he was always dragging me out in snowstorms. I'd really like to wear shorts all year at least once in my life."

She was beautiful. She was perfect. She presented a small painting to Luke and Lorelai as their wedding present that she couldn't hide because there wasn't any wrapping paper, and it was one of the most spectacular, intriguing paintings Rory had ever seen. She was talented. Very talented. She was sweet, well spoken, and seemed completely at ease within herself. Rory admired Jess's ability to hold down a relationship with someone like this, yet it didn't really surprise her. She had always known he could.

They all went their separate ways before the rehearsal dinner that night. It was Rory and Logan's responsibility to entertain Emily and Richard Gilmore when they arrived, early as always. Upon learning of this news, Jess slapped Logan on the back.

"Price you pay, man," Jess said.

Logan grinned back at Jess and Rory only rolled her eyes. Jess hadn't lied. He wasn't making trouble. But there was also a part of him that wasn't letting Logan forget that Jess had been in Rory's life a long time, that he too knew a thing or two about the requirements of being her boyfriend. It wasn't in big things, it was subtle, such as the comment he had just made about the elder Gilmores as he and Ashley were on their way out the door. It was cordial and good-natured, but still.

"I wouldn't throw stones, I've seen the heritage you're working with," Logan returned in kind.

"Yeah, no shit," Jess agreed ruefully.

With that, they walked out the door and Logan was left alone with Rory to wait for Richard and Emily Gilmore. "It's unlucky for us that my grandparents like both of us," Rory said. "They're not likely to want to talk to anyone else."

"I'm alright with that," Logan said. "I like Richard."

"It's so creepy the way you two are friends."

"You know that we stayed in touch even while we were apart, don't you?" Logan asked. She shot him a look. "What? I've known the Gilmores my entire life."

"How horrifying," Rory said. "And incestuous."

"Don't talk dirty to me when I can't do anything about it," Logan teased. "By the way, you look stunning."

She smiled at him. "Thank you," she said quietly. "You're kinda dashing yourself."

"Armani loves me," he said.

"How will we ever find a house that fits your enormous ego?" Rory returned jokingly.

They heard the sound of the car being driven up and they jumped to the door, interested in not giving the Gilmore entry to the house so they might not be enticed to stay. They were running fairly on schedule and a long conversation with them in the living room of Luke and Lorelai's house wasn't what Logan nor Rory were looking to do. Fortunately, Emily was in a hurry to get 'downtown' in case they had trouble parking. Rory tried to explain - Emily wasn't having it. She was certain the square would be packed for her daughter's rehearsal dinner, finally aware of how intertwined Lorelai and this town were.

"Oh, goodness, it's that horrible boy you used to date," Emily whispered to Logan and Rory. "What's he doing here?"

"He's Luke's nephew, Grandma," Rory said. "Of course he's here."

Logan began to see why Jess may not have felt so welcomed to be with Rory when they were teenagers. He hadn't been welcomed.

"We're sitting over here," Rory said, her voice tense.

Immediate family was all going to sit at the front table with Luke and Lorelai. That meant Liz, TJ, Jess, and Ashley would flank Luke, Rory, Logan, Emily, and Richard would flank Lorelai.

"Mrs. Gilmore," Jess greeted her cordially, holding out his hand to her. "It's nice to see you again."

"Jess, was it?" she asked, feigning a foggy memory, shaking ever so briefly.

"Jess Mariano, yes," he said quietly. Rory was mortified.

Richard stuck out his hand and pumped it heartily. "Good to see you again, son, I've heard you've been doing great things," Richard said. He earned a look of wrath from Emily and one of gratitude from Rory. He gave his granddaughter a wink and escorted his wife away.

"Wow, I feel like this is one big 'let's shit on the guy that Jess use to be' weekend," Jess said sarcastically.

"I'm so sorry, I'm absolutely ashamed of them," Rory said, grimacing.

"Nah, I know your Grams, I'm not worried about it," Jess said. "Babette, on the other hand, and Miss Patty. They're letting me hear a thing or two. Taylor let me know that he hasn't allowed any chalk to be sold in his store without ID since my little prank. All sorts of stories are being brought up."

"And some things I'm sure I don't want to know," Ashley interjected. "I've heard you were a problem."

"I'm sorry if any of this is awkward for you," Rory said to Ashley, then turned to Logan. "Or you. My God, this was 7 years ago but they just absolutely insist on dragging it up. They're a bored, small, stupid little town who love watching a good fight."

"Speaking of a good fight, did you invite Dean to the wedding?" Jess asked. Rory shot him daggers and he laughed. "So easily provoked."

"We should take our seats," Rory said, taking Logan's hand and leaving.

Yeah, he could always get under her skin. And now he was trying. She knew him enough to know it was a gut reaction to being looked down on and condescended to. That was always going to be part and parcel of being in her life. Logan didn't receive that treatment from anybody but Mitchum, he didn't know what it was like. Rory sympathized with Jess's knee-jerk reaction but if he kept it up all night, she'd have to figure out how to strategically avoid him the rest of the weekend. She knew where this kind of sour mood of his could go and she wanted absolutely no part of it.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Logan said quietly.

"I know, but - " she started, understanding that Jess had begun to exhibit similar behavior which had made Logan uncomfortable before.

Logan held up his hand. "Rory, it's okay."

She gave him a grateful smile and kissed him. "We'll keep to ourselves from here on," she said quietly. "As much as we can. No one else is normal."

"He's on the defense," Logan answered. "I would be, too, in his shoes."

Like she ever thought that would come out of his mouth.

As she watched Jess deliver the best man speech, it was strange to think that Jess was likely the closest male companion that Luke had. He'd spent all his time and energy on friendship with Lorelai so there hadn't really been room for him to make true male friends. But Jess gave an eloquent, heartfelt speech about the hard love he'd received from Luke, the guidance, that the same patience and ever enduring love he received from his uncle must be what he gave to Lorelai to be so happy, and never was it more well deserved.

"Here here!" chorused throughout the group and the toast was sold with a sip of their drinks. Then Rory stood, knowing it was her turn.

"I know I don't have to say who I am, nor who I am to these people. But I can say something about who they are to me, how it almost feels like my parents are getting married. After all, it was Luke who beat the boys off me, who sewed a roof over the whole town so I could have my farewell party anyway, who took the plus-one seat next to my mother at so many of the graduations, recitals, plays, and exhibits I ever was in. And my mom, who raised me from baby to girl to brat to woman and never stopped loving me, ever. There was never a single moment in my entire life when I didn't know I could return to her, no matter what I'd done, no matter how I'd hurt her.

"I grew up watching Luke take care of us before he ever had an inkling he loved us. He had a heart, and he helped a poor, nutty kid and HER kid because they needed it. He's been there for us through my entire life. They helped one another, argued, laughed, conceded, struggled, succeeded, and eventually loved each other until they couldn't say there was any reason to not be together. Looking back, that's how we all want to fall in love - slow, steady, sure, and eventually with an undying passion, begun accidentally with friendship, trust, laughter, hugs, and just an endless stream of coffee resentfully served. Luke, I gladly hand over my family. You've always been a part of our family so I'm happy to simply make it official. Mom, you've never been anything but a constant source of love and support. I rejoice in the joy I see in you two. I love you both, and I celebrate the rest of your lives, now, finally, once and for all, TOGETHER."

The guests drank to her toast as Lorelai nearly fell to tears as she rose to embrace her daughter. It was the sweetness of thought and expression, watching the relationship grow from the perspective of the child who had wanted for a father, and gotten him all her life when he had no claim to her at all. Rory knew that Lorelai knew how Rory felt about the relationship Luke had put effort into forging with her, but Rory had wanted to make sure that Luke knew, in case he didn't already. He joined Lorelai in an embrace of Rory, the two of them hugging the girl they had both helped raise in their own way. She hugged and kissed them both then pulled back, kissing Luke's cheek individually.

"You guys are going to make me cry," Rory complained, smiling as she wiped at her eyes.

More toasts were made, wine was drunk, dinner was consumed, and soon enough the 6 were walking back to the Gilmore house because none of them felt comfortable enough with driving after so much consumption of wine.

"Where's your driver, Huntzberger?" Rory teased as they began their walk out of town. "He's never around when you need him."

"Like I'd keep a driver waiting around for me in Stars Hollow," Logan said, slipping his arm around her slender waist.

"Hey, I wouldn't put it past you, fella," she said. "You always seem to have one pretty conveniently nearby."

"Well, I apologize, I hadn't anticipated needing a car in a town the size of a thimble," Logan said.

"Funny, I never took you for clueless."

"You're not as nice as everyone says you are, Gilmore," Logan said to Rory, grinning at her.

"Speaking of Gilmore, you're leaving me all alone with the name, Mom, except for Grandma and Grandpa," Rory said.

"Tough," Lorelai said. "I'm taking my baby daddy name."

"Please don't call me that."

"See? You should've married me when you had the chance, Ace," Logan teased.

"Oh, too soon!" Rory cried in defense.

"What? It was MY injured pride," Logan defended the joke.

"Still."

"And it was a few years ago now."

"Not helping still, shockingly."

"Hey, you know what, me and my baby daddy are going to take the long way home," Lorelai said, tugging Luke towards the bridge. It would run them in a circle around the forest for a while before bringing them back to home. Rory knew it well, having used it often as a teenager.

"Really, don't call me that."

"Do you hear someone talking?" Lorelai asked as she walked off with her soon to be husband.

There was quiet on the sidewalk for a while, the four of them ambling contentedly on this warm, but not stifling, sparkling evening. None of them had much to say as they walked in the quiet summer night, merely enjoying their surroundings and the peace. They heard a few hoots and hollers in the distance of a teenage party, bringing back fond memories of such hell raising experiences of their youths for all in the party. Logan began chuckling as he began to recount one such memory.

"I've got these two buddies," Logan said. "Colin and Finn. They've been with me everywhere. We were all packed off to the same boarding school when we were 8. They're my brothers. And when Finn was about 15, he'd decided to really drink for the first time, and reenacted West Side Story. It was great because he did both sides."

"So began the tradition?" Rory asked, grinning at the image. "Finn once reenacted the Passion of the Christ using my grandparents' pool cleaning net as a crucifix. It was terrible."

"It was fantastic," Logan said. "And I didn't lie to you, did I, Ace? Nothing ever was so bad in your life as watching that, was it?"

"Yes, it really put things in perspective," Rory said.

"Dean had just broken up with her," Logan explained to the others.

"Been there," Jess concurred, making Logan laugh.

"Hey, no!" Rory protested.

"That guy was always fucking there, wasn't he?" Jess asked Logan. "Towering."

"Yes, it was the towering," Logan said. "He was also quite good at storming out."

"Oh, yes, never forget the storming out," Jess agreed. "I saw quite a bit more of him storming IN, frankly, because I wasn't supposed to be there."

"He had a very imposing way of setting his jaw when he was upset," Logan said.

"Somehow always made sure that you knew he had nice hair, too, and I'm not sure how he managed that with just body language," Jess went on. "I always meant to ask him about that."

"Oh my God," Rory said, letting go of Logan and walking faster to get ahead of them.

Logan chuckled and jogged to catch up, leaving Jess and Ashley alone a few steps behind them. "Rory, come on."

"It's not funny, Logan," Rory said. "This is already awkward for me, and, oh my God, how awkward for Ashley. You guys aren't helping."

"We should all try to laugh about the elephant in the room, Ace, come on," Logan said. "It's long history for all of us. It's no big deal."

"It's a big deal to me," she replied.

Jess opened his mouth to say something but Logan simply took her hand. "Then I'm sorry, I'll stop," he said.

Quietly, Jess took note of this tactic. There was something to be said for admitting that it didn't matter if he felt he hadn't done anything wrong - she hadn't liked it, so he would stop. Simple. End of argument. Everyone happy. No one arguing or humiliated.

All the same, the two couples walked back several paces apart from each other the rest of the way home.


	7. Incandescent Beauty

The next day, Rory got ready early in order to help her mother with her dress. They were getting married in the garden behind the Inn, a beautiful place that Michele had cultivated into something of an Eden. It also meant that the rooms were available to their guests, and convenient. They used the two downstairs living spaces as dressing rooms, careful to keep the men and women apart so Luke would not see Lorelai before they married.

"I'm not nervous in the least," Lorelai said, looking at herself in the mirror. "I can't believe I'm not nervous."

"I can," Rory said. "He's your best friend, your pancake connection, and your baby daddy. What's there to question?"

"Ooh, I knew you were my daughter," Lorelai said, smiling. "Okay, checklist?"

"Something old?" Rory asked.

"Me?"

"No."

"The bespeckled barrettes holding my hair up in back," Lorelai said, turning around. "You made them for me when you were 9."

"Oh, the Bedazzler!" Rory said. "How cute was I?"

"Pretty damn cute."

"Aw," Rory said, smiling. "Okay, focus. Something new."

"The whole damn dress is new," Lorelai said.

"Doesn't count."

"My necklace," Lorelai said. "Luke gave it to me when we first got engaged and I've never worn it until now. Seemed like bad luck."

"Very good," Rory agreed. "Something borrowed."

"The makeup I'm wearing."

"Are you giving it back when you're done wearing it?"

"No."

"Then it doesn't count, does it?

"My earrings," Lorelai said. "They're from Mom."

"Excellent!" Rory said. "Something blue?"

"I can't show you."

"Then how will I know?" Rory asked.

"You'll just have to trust me."

"Why would you choose THAT to be the something blue, though? It doesn't make any sense."

"It's better than if they were borrowed or old."

"Valid point," Rory said. "You may now commence getting married."

"To my baby daddy," Lorelai said.

"I think he really does hate that," Rory said. "I don't think it's his crowning achievement to have two children out of wedlock."

"Nor mine, but you don't see me getting upset about the baby mama drama, do you?"

"Oh, Mom."

Richard came back at that moment to spend a few minutes with Lorelai and Rory, after a few more words, hugged her mom ever so carefully and left the dressing area. She stepped outside into the waiting area and saw Sookie and Jackson, Liz and TJ in their own little groups. She picked up one of the programs for the wedding in order to occupy herself, not feeling like making conversation. The front cover read:

_In that book which is_ _My memory . . ._ _On the first page_ _That is the chapter when_ _I first met you_ _Appear the words . . ._ _Here begins a new life_

_- Dante Alighieri_

Rory smiled, and opened to read the inside, which was a basic description of their wedding parties, their families, and their gratitude. At some point, her mother and Luke had turned into romantics. Even with all their resistance, they had turned out something of a traditional wedding.

Jess was leaning against the wall, staring out the window. He was wearing a tux, and didn't even seem all that uncomfortable in doing so. She didn't know if she'd ever seen him in so much as a suit before. She smiled at him as she approached and offered him a program, which he accepted.

"Shaken or stirred, sir?"

He turned and smiled appreciatively. "Look at how nicely you clean up."

"I might say the same of you, buster," she said.

"Yeah, don't get too used to it," he said. "It's back to the rental place after this."

"Like, right after this or are you going to the reception?"

"Does Logan find that sort of thing cute about you?"

"What?"

"The constant need for back-talking?"

"It's not back-talking unless it's from a child to a parent," Rory said. "Between equals, it's rapport."

"Ayn, I'll never understand your world."

"That's okay," Rory said.

"How's your Mom?" he asked.

She smiled that he would ask. "Incredibly calm," she said. "She's not worried at all. How's Luke?"

"Terrified he's going to cry, I think, but claiming he's nervous about reciting the vows," Jess replied.

"Aren't they adorable?" Rory asked.

"Well, I'm glad for them, if that's what you're asking," Jess said. "But don't ask me to get too in depth on this. I have a reputation to protect around here."

"Sorry," Rory said.

Jess gave her a smile, then sighed. "I've had a lot of fun with you this weekend, Rory," he said. 'I really have. I miss doing this with you. We always had a pretty great friendship."

She returned the smile. "We did, didn't we?"

"But, so you know, I don't know how much we should continue being friends outside of family gatherings," Jess said. "It's a lot to expect we can bury the hatchet all at once, just like that. Our entire history is nothing but 'what if' and 'remember when I hurt you' and things like that. I think we should just let it go for a while."

"Jess, we're going to see each other again," Rory said, taken aback by the turn the conversation had taken. "We can't help that. Your uncle and my mother are married."

"Yeah, but nothing outside of that," Jess said. "Strictly holiday gatherings, when you can be torn out of DC. For a while, at least. Until it gets easier."

Her brow furrowed and he sighed at the look on her face. "I'm sorry, I just don't know where this is coming from, setting rules."

"Comes from my very uncomfortable girlfriend," Jess answered. "And me. I get lost in the past with you. I never remember who you are in the present, or who I am, for that matter. Neither does anyone else."

"What - ?"

"I think about us when we were still figuring out whether or not we wanted to be together," Jess said. "Or, rather, when I was figuring that out. I don't yet know how to separate those Jess's when I'm around you, Rory. I'm not going to be Logan's buddy, even though he's making a damn good effort at it."

"You both are," Rory said. "I think it's going really well."

"It is," Jess said. "No argument. Almost too well."

"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there," Rory said, her jaw setting in a very Dean-like way as she grew angrier. "You said you weren't going to do this."

"And I hadn't imagined I would," Jess said. "This is what I'm trying to tell you. I can't think of you detachedly. I still want to challenge your decisions, your boyfriend choice - and he seems to be a really solid guy, by the way - and it's fucked up, Rory."

"Why in the hell are you telling me this now?" Rory demanded. "My mother is about to walk out here and I have to walk down the aisle with you."

"_Because _I have to walk down the aisle with you," Jess returned quietly. "Because we have to stand at the altar together and listen to wedding vows together. Because if every movie I've ever not watched on Lifetime, don't tell anyone or I'll kill you, is accurate, then you and I might have some sort of tragic, corny, "remember when" moment at some point from here to the altar. But I can't do it. Don't let's do it."

"Problem solved," Rory said, irritated, and walked away.

She wasn't angry because he had said so, she was angry because she hadn't. He had beat her to the punch on this? How did that happen? No fair at all. So he had seen it, too, the way he was regressing to his old habits around her. It was hard to imagine that so much time and history could pass and they still be unable to see each other simply as they were now. She was too angry at him to notice the look of regret on his face, or the sadness in his eyes. He'd done it for himself, for Rory, for Ashley, and even for Logan. He had to hand it to the other guy. He was a class act now and any sort of innuendo or quiet flirting or rivalry that always occurred when Jess and Rory got together would be a disservice to all of them. But if Jess was the only one to restrain the situation, history proved it wouldn't be done so he needed to include Rory in obtaining some distance.

Rory made sure to busy herself in some way until the very moment she had to walk down the aisle with Jess. Liz and TJ went down the aisle together first, then Sookie and Jackson. Rory looked at Jess across the doorway while they were still hidden from view. She glanced down the aisle and saw Logan in the front row, only eight rows up, looking back, waiting for her, eager to set his eyes on her in her royal blue elegant gown. She turned to Jess and forced her face to quiet. It was her mother's day. No drama.

Jess glided out into the aisle, into view, and held out his arm for Rory. She took a step forward, meeting him, and took his arm. He stood tall, easy, and classy. She had never seen him be so at ease in a formal social setting before and she realized suddenly that he could do it, that it had been intentional to not do well in social scenes before. But this mattered to him, so he made a concerted effort to do his part to make it easier.

"It's not because I don't like you, Rory," he said quietly to her.

"I know," she returned, just as softly.

He held out his hand to help her walk up the stairs to the altar and they parted ways. They stood two steps below the top, several feet away from each other. She gave him no looks, no attention, exactly as he had wanted it to be because this wasn't about them, not about their past, not about their inability to have a clean start quite yet. This was about Luke and Lorelai and they both would hate themselves if they had managed to distract their own attention from what was about to happen.

The familiar music struck, and all eyes turned to the back. Lorelai joined her father at the end of the aisle and Rory watched tearfully as her mother began the 30 yard walk towards finally getting her happy ending. Luke was already puffing up his chest, a transparent attempt at reining in his emotion.

Rory turned to Logan and he was already looking at her, a bit of a smile on his face but a very serious look in his eyes. He placed his hands on his heart with his meaningful gaze fixed on her and she got flutters. That Logan, with all his charm and his 'doing the right thing at the right moment' sort of ways. She couldn't help but love someone like Logan, someone who had been broken at the idea of losing her. She no longer wondered what it was like to love that strongly, so much so that you could never be the same when that person wasn't around anymore. Lorelai had been a hollow shell of herself when she had lost Luke in their breakups and Logan had been a mess. Was this the sign of a relationship worth fighting for? Was such a measure really the objective?

Within moments, her mother was married. No angst, no jitters, just emotional, and somewhat humorous, avowals. Rory handed the large man's ring to Lorelai when it came time to exchange rings and she watched as Luke accepted the only piece of jewelry she'd ever see on him. He was such a gruff, grumpy man in general, always irate about something, and perhaps it was very fitting to Lorelai's needs as she generally spent her days never sweating the small stuff. They didn't try to change the other or break them of habits. It just worked.

Luke and Lorelai walked down the aisle together after sharing a kiss, their first as husband and wife. Lorelai had turned to her daughter for the briefest of moments before walking down the aisle, sharing an openly tearful, joyous, rapturous look with Rory. It was done. Lorelai had a new family, a husband finally, and a son. It would never be the same for Rory, coming home. Her mom was going to become more like her sister, she knew, and she'd be an aunt to her little brother more than anything else. After all, there was a 8 year longer gap in age between Rory and her brother than Rory and their mother. Hilarious.

She realized suddenly that Jess was offering her his arm and she shook herself out of it. She accepted his arm and they walked down the aisle together, following Luke and Lorelai's exit. He squeezed her hand that rest on the crook of his arm and she realized she was grabbing him with a death grip. She released his arm and let her hand rest there, wondering where this tenseness came from and hoping there was video of the ceremony, because she felt like she'd already forgotten it.

Rory was relieved to let go of Jess's arm at the end of the aisle and didn't so much as give him a look as she disappeared into the next room. Jess watched her go, understanding that he had pushed her away and she was merely respecting his wish. It would be cordial after this but he had made sure there would no more opportunity on this trip for them to try to be friends again. They couldn't be. Wasn't yet possible.

"Hey, Jess, where's Rory?" Logan asked, clapping his hand on Jess's shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, I think she went through..." Jess said, finishing his sentence by pointing.

"Thanks," Logan said.

Jess observed as Logan went after Rory, prepared to be the man on her arm for the rest of the night, or perhaps the rest of her life. He knew they were happy together, he could see it in the way they were together. Logan knew Rory was his priority, making this work was his priority, and he was giving it everything he had. That was what Rory deserved. Ashley was much the same, finally giving Jess the one-on-one attention he deserved. No more chasing after one-night stands or watching Rory with her boyfriends and quietly wondering if she'd ever come back to him. They both deserved better than what they gave each other. They both finally had it. The rest would come.

Jess had walked out of the reception at one point to find Richard, Logan and Luke on the edge of the party. Richard and Logan were smoking cigars together, Luke looking like he would rather be anywhere other than here. As soon as he spotted Jess, he compelled his presence. Never, in a million years, did Jess think at any point he would be Luke's ally, Luke's safe place. Yet here he was, being beckoned as though he was the only life boat for miles around.

"Cigar party, is it?" Jess asked, approaching.

"Would you like one, son?" Richard asked. "Luke didn't want his."

Jess held up his hand. "Our family has a general aversion to them," he said. "Thank you though."

"You smoke, don't you?" Richard asked Jess, who shrugged.

"I gave it up," he replied. "Bad habit. Seemed like a dumb idea to continue when I want to be a swimmer and Olympic tryouts are soon."

"So I heard, good choice," Richard replied, not missing a beat. "Luke was telling me about your books and your store. Well done, son."

Jess shrugged. "They go hand-in-hand with what I like to do," he said. "Made the most sense. I'm not making any money at it."

"Don't sell yourself short," Richard said. "You've come a long way, and you're making a living at a dying industry in a struggling economy. You should take some credit."

He wondered where this sort of friendliness came from all of a sudden but chose to accept it. "Thank you sir."

Richard nodded then turned his attention to his new son-in-law. "Now, Luke, you really surpassed Emily's expectations," Richard said. "Now I know that doesn't sound like much of a compliment but it is. She's very pleased with today. And that, sir, is good news for me, so I owe you some thanks."

"Owe it to Lorelai," Luke said. "She planned the whole thing."

"Of course we know that, but you played your part and gave her a beautiful wedding," Richard said. "You really came through for her. You always have. I think Rory's speech last night about who was there for her and Lorelai during their early years hit Emily and I pretty hard. I wanted to thank you for that. You're a worthy man for my daughter and I know you don't need our blessing, but you certainly have it."

Luke shifted somewhat uncomfortably on his feet, unsure of what to say to such honesty from the family which had always given him such grief. Luke's meeting with the Gilmores had never gone well. "Kind of you to say, Richard."

And there it was. The nicest things Richard Gilmore had ever said to the Danes family. Luke shot his nephew a look as Richard patted Logan on the back, returning to his far more comfortable and easy camaraderie with Rory's boyfriend. Jess shrugged and made the sign of holding a joint to his mouth with a questioning look. Luke, for once, chuckled to himself at his nephew's inappropriateness and Jess really did feel, finally, as though he had an ally, as though he belonged somewhere.

Rory had caught a glimpse of her boyfriend and Luke with Richard, knowing they were probably getting some sort of 'you're both part of the Gilmore family now, boys' conversation that her grandfather had been dying to give to someone for as long as he had been a father. She edged closer to them, waiting to catch Logan's eye. She had changed into a mauve cocktail dress, slinky and provocative. Logan finally saw her standing several yards away, grinned at her shyness, and excused himself from the party of gentlemen to join her.

"You're incredibly sexy," Logan said, wrapping his arm around her waist and ducking down to give her a kiss.

"You smell like cigar," Rory replied.

"Blame your grandfather, you know how he peer pressures me into drinking and smoking."

"Oh, yes, Mr. Gilmore is the problem," Rory teased, wrapping her arm around his waist and leading him away. "You have to dance with me."

"Is that right, Ace? I don't recall leaving you space on my dance card."

Richard watched them go and sighed to himself. "I hope she marries that boy," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I think Rory's a saint and I would never speak ill of her. But she got lucky that he was willing to come back."

Jess bit his tongue and looked over to Luke. "You know, Richard, Logan cheated on her less than a year before he proposed to her," Luke said, warranting a sharp look from Richard. "She had every reason in the world to say no, not right now. She was too young and so is he."

"How come I don't know about this?" Richard asked, shocked.

"Probably because you like him and Rory doesn't want that to stop," Jess said with a more sour tone than he meant to convey.

"Well, of course I wouldn't like him so much if I knew he cheated on her," Richard protested.

"You should," Luke said. "He's a good kid. And kids make mistakes. Now, how they handle their mistakes and if they do them again, that's how you gauge the man."

"I just can't believe Rory wouldn't tell me," Richard said. "This changes everything."

"I don't think so," Luke rejected. "It happened almost 4 years ago. They're allowed to make mistakes and move on with their lives. And I probably shouldn't have told you if Rory or Lorelai hadn't so would you cover for me and not bring it up?"

This seemed to placate him, or at least redirect his attention, for the time being and he brought up a story of when he had first brought Rory to his club to learn to golf. It was the first day that they had bonded and she had told him all the gossip from the women's steam room, including all the cheating wives and husbands.

"We men never talk about it," Richard said thoughtfully, and without asking for any answers. "I can only imagine what our women hide from us."

When Richard walked away, Jess leaned over to Luke, "Exactly the sort of pep talk you want to hear on your wedding day."

"He has a hard time with his girls being hurt, even Lorelai," Luke said. He gave Jess a careful look. "You're having trouble being around Rory."

"Excuse me?" Jess said.

"You're having a hard time being around Rory."

"Is there something in our history together that makes you think I'm going to answer that?"

"It wasn't a question," Luke said.

Jess stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's hard to be around each other," he said. "It may always be hard. That's it."

"Logan seems like a good kid," Luke said. "So does Ashley."

"Yeah."

Luke waited for Jess to expound upon his answer and when he didn't, said, "Okay, good talk."

"There's nothing to talk about, Luke," Jess said. "Enjoy your wedding day, would you? Rory and I, it's not solving itself today. We made progress. It's not about us. Go be a husband or something."

Knowing how easily he embarrassed and was aggravated, Luke got an acceptable amount of grief from his groomsmen and the townspeople. He was compelled to follow the tradition of removing the garter from Lorelai's leg with his teeth and yet it seemed everyone else was punished for it by their exchanged looks of unmasked lust once he was done. By the time they left for their honeymoon of two weeks in New Zealand, the party had really started to heat up and it was also time for the elder Gilmores, kids, and underagers to leave.

"Want another drink?" Logan offered after saying their farewells to those who weren't staying for the long haul.

"I would," Rory said. "But I have to drive back to DC in the morning and I think I should probably not be too hungover."

Logan nodded. "Good call," he said. "But I'm flying, so you'll be carrying me home tonight, sucker."

Rory laughed as Logan poured himself another glass of wine. "Fine, I'll take one."

"Knew it," he said, handing her a glass. "Can I talk to you for a minute? I've got something on my mind that I wanted to share, but knew it had to wait until after your mom left."

"Is everything alright?" Rory asked.

"Yes, absolutely," Logan said, leading her away from the group so they could have some quiet. "I wanted to have the conversation face-to-face."

"I'm not going to see you for another month, am I?"

"Yeah, probably not," he agreed.

"That's stupid."

Logan chuckled. "What do you have to look forward to when you get back?"

"Work," Rory said. "It's back to the administration and the White House and the whole job."

"How do you feel about it?" Logan asked. "Was it the right choice?"

She shrugged. "I've been doing it for eight months and I'm still not sure," she said. "I was thinking about that, actually. I'm sacrificing my entire social life for this job and I feel like I'm too young to do that, like I'm peaking too early or something. Shouldn't I be having fun right now? I also feel unprepared, that college wasn't enough for me to play with the big dogs quite so early."

"You're thinking about grad school still?" Logan asked, to which she nodded. "You know, everybody has to work, Rory. You're lucky in that you get to have a job which allows you to do what you love."

"I'm feeling antsy because I don't have any sort of support system going there," Rory said. "It's harder than I thought it would be."

"I've never known a Gilmore to shrink from a fight, especially not you."

"But I feel isolated," Rory said. "My boyfriend is in California, my family is in Connecticut, my friends are in Connecticut. I have nothing in DC, and no time to make anything there. I work and go home because it's too late to go out. And how do you make friends in DC? I'm 20 years younger than most of the people in my field."

"Well, this is part of what I wanted to talk to you about," Logan said. "Can we talk for a little bit about figuring out how to make this no longer long-distance?"

"Of course," Rory said, her curiosity piqued as they took seats on the curb about a block away.

"And I'm actually glad that you brought up grad school again," Logan said.

"I'm listening," she said.

"When you were graduating, remember how I told you to not factor me in, that I'd be factoring you in?" he asked. "And, yeah, then promptly took it back and did the opposite?"

Rory grimaced. "Yeah."

"I think I can finally make good on that promise," he said.

"How?"

"When we talked yesterday," Logan said. "It made me realize on what a small scale I was thinking about our relationship. San Francisco or DC. You or me. Our conversation made us both realize our options were much bigger than that. I couldn't sleep last night because I kept being pissed at my inability to rectify a situation that we both were less than satisfied with."

"It's not up to you to fix it, Logan," Rory said. "It's up to us."

"True," Logan said. "But I'm always the idea guy, the guy who gets the ball rolling on solutions to problems. It's what I'm particularly good at. I'd expect we'd talk about it, but I always assumed I'd be the one to lose sleep over how to fix it. Not to say you wouldn't, but it's not the way you are. You're about lists, weighing your options over time, etc. And I love that about you, weirdo. But we're very different that way. And that's when it just hit me."

"What did?" she asked, not quite following.

"I'm qualified to handle and manage both human and fiscal capital," Logan said. "I have experience in news, print, technology, economics, you name it. And what was so good about this company in Palo Alto is they wanted my expertise in getting them up and off the ground. That's perfect for me. I'm not the build a business from the ground up sort of guy, I'm the get a business up and running sort of guy."

"You're losing me."

"Consulting," Logan said. "I'm perfectly built for consulting. I can be a free agent, or I can work for a company. I can go wherever I want and there will be work, temporarily or permanently. I already have connections all over the world and a solid reputation. I get to be the guy who comes in with ideas, fixes things, or gets them going to begin with, then doesn't have to get bored by the hum-drum of running it."

Rory was dumb-founded. Of course! It was perfect, if he wanted to do it, that was. Why hadn't they thought of this before? He was indeed perfectly suited to consulting and it offered the flexibility of a living situation that would allow them to move as needed.

"You see where I'm going with it?" Logan asked, and she nodded silently, her heart pounding with the excitement of possibility. "Even as a junior consultant, I'll make plenty. You pick the city, Ace. Stay in DC, go to grad school somewhere, pick another paper. Whatever you want. I'll meet you there. Consulting work is available for someone like me in any major metropolitan area in the country, especially the east or west coastline."

"Logan!" she exclaimed excitedly, clutching his arm.

"Ace, even if you become an international correspondent, I have international contacts," he said. "I'll have the constant challenge that I'm looking so hard for, and your doors are exactly as wide open as you wanted them to be."

"I KNEW it!" Rory said, feeling tears well in her eyes at the thought of their separation ending. "I KNEW that we could find a solution to this if we gave it time and thought. Oh, Logan, well done! But are you sure? Are you sure you'd like it?"

"Hell no, how could I be sure?" Logan asked. "But it's a very likely fit. And if either of us find ourselves unhappy with the situation, we've learned that we not only can, but should talk about it. We'll figure out something."

"We're not going to be long distance anymore," Rory said, sighing with some relief. "I need to wake up with you, to start and end my days with your arms around me. I'm going mad without it."

"Me, too, Ace," he concurred tenderly, leaning in for a gentle kiss. It deepened quickly, between the two glasses of wine they'd had and the thrill they felt at seeing a light at the end of their tunnel of distance. But he pulled away, cupping her face in his hands. "Rory?"

"Mm?"

"In the interest of full disclosure," Logan said. "I want us to start talking about marriage within the next year, because once we move in together again wherever it is that you pick, it won't be long before I want to ask you again."

"We definitely should talk about it," Rory agreed. "Because you can count on a very different answer this time."

They may not always be on the same page. He didn't always understand her. She didn't always care about what he talked about when it related to his business. They were still not ready to be married. But they were no longer in a hurry to accomplish the paperwork. They knew the conversations they needed to have, were confident in not only their desire but ability to repair any leaks in the dam of their relationship. Slowly but surely, they were becoming partners, figuring out how to transfer their passions for work and each other into a passion for a life together.

A future that included each other was, finally, attainable and in their sights.

_"The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident."_

_- Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole_


	8. The Last Beginning

_ Where to now?_

_ Anywhere you want, Ace._

And he'd meant it. This world was hers. Her heart mourned for the year of depression, anger, and loneliness they had both experienced because they had been too young, too immature to sit down and come up with Plan C when he first proposed. It was a mistake, an error of judgement, and while it was also something to regret, it was something from which to learn.

Torn between Medill at Northwestern and Columbia, her options would really be chosen by whether or not she was able to be accepted into Columbia's sub-program at Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. A highly intensive program, it ground into students how to utilize information and read it.

"I feel like it's something I missed at Yale," Rory said to Logan as they were discussing their options. She had to apply no later than January 15 but she wanted to get it done earlier. "There really wasn't a lot going on at Yale. There was so much chaos with Paris and Doyle and you, I feel like I might have missed a few things."

Logan chuckled, settling back in his desk chair. "Yeah, the Life and Death Brigade sort of investigative journalism doesn't really teach you to bust the nuts of a politician," Logan said. "We may have had a legendarily unprofessional newspaper those years."

"Yeah, no joke."

"So we're looking at Chicago or New York?" Logan asked.

"I think so," Rory said. "Medill is just fantastic. I mean, their school is IN the Chicago Tribune. But Columbia is, well, Columbia. And their program is so comprehensive. I could earn my M.S. with a concentration in international affairs and investigative journalism - provided I'm one of the 15 accepted into the Stabile Center - and that only takes a year. Another year and I could get my M.A."

"What's the difference?" he asked. "Excuse my ignorance, Ace, but isn't there just one way to ask a question and write the answer?"

"Uh," Rory said, flipping through the papers she had while trying to hold the phone to her ear. "The M.A.'s purpose is to educate its students in one particular area of expertise, our chosen field, so we are able to be more fully informed on what we're asking and what we should be asking."

"They'll be teaching you to know enough to be able to call bullshit, essentially?" Logan asked.

"Exactly," Rory said. "It's like obtaining an undergraduate degree in an entire subject matter."

"And both programs take a year each?" he asked.

"Yep," Rory said. "They run for 8 or 9 months each, so I'd still have the summer off."

"You sound excited," Logan said.

"I am!" she said. "You know how much I love school."

"You are a strange bird, Gilmore."

Rory laughed. "It's exciting to me," she said. "Sometimes I do feel as though all the prep work I did to be here wasn't nearly enough and I'm left having to do more research than the others."

"You're new to this, Ace," Logan said. "I'm sure you're doing fine."

"Fine is not fine," Rory said. "Fine is not Christiane Amanpour. Fine is not the goal. Fine is neither very Gilmore, Hayden, nor Huntzberger."

"Alright, alright, I gotcha," Logan said. "I'm waving a white flag of linguistic mediocrity over here."

"Besides, Columbia keeps us on the east coast," Rory said. "I'd want to be able to know my brother a little better than I know my sister."

"Yeah, that's fair," Logan said.

"You realize that it's still almost a year before the graduate program starts?" Rory asked.

"Well, I knew that when I made the suggestion," he said. "I know there's an application process and it takes time. There's an end in sight, a solution we've found and are putting into motion. That's what matters."

"And I might not be accepted."

"Not only did you go to Yale and was their editor, Rory, but you were on Obama's campaign trail and now are in his press room," Logan said. "I don't want to hear a word about how you might not be qualified to be accepted."

"My dad wants to help pay again," Rory said. "It's something ridiculous like $100,000 to pay for the 2 years."

Logan chuckled. "You want a lobster dinner and a vintage bottle of champagne while we're at it?"

"We should talk about money, Logan," she said. "We never do."

"Because, as you have so artfully pointed out to me time and time again, it's not a concern for me," Logan said. "You know that."

"Yes, but I'll be unable to work while I'm in school," Rory said. "And this isn't like undergrad, when I had living expenses included in my tuition and a food plan. I'll still have to pay for living - my car, my health insurance, food, going out, trips home, my books."

"Come on, Ace, you know I don't mind paying for that stuff," Logan said.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Rory asked. "Ask you for a weekly allowance?"

"Well, you have savings, right?" Logan asked.

"Right," she said. "From the campaign trail when I wasn't paying for much."

"So keep that in case you want to use it for something you don't feel comfortable using my money for," he said. "And I'll put you on my checking account."

"Logan, are you sure?"

"I'm not worried about you robbing me blind, Ace," Logan said. "I'm more worried about the Ramen Noodle diet you're going to be on because you're afraid of using my money. But what's the point of having it if I can't spend it the right way? Helping you go to school so we can live together again, that's definitely spending it the right way. You start buying Birkins once a month and we'll have to talk. Until then, it's our money, Rory, especially if we're building a life together."

"Which we are," Rory said softly, touched and grateful beyond words.

"Yes," Logan confirmed. "We are. So shut up and don't worry about money. I have that luxury and now so do you."

"Gosh, Logan, you're just the most romantic, eloquent - "

"A simple 'thank you' minus the sarcasm is adequate," Logan said, chuckling. "I admit, I'm glad you picked New York or Chicago. Those will definitely be easiest for me."

"It's usually the big cities that have the best schools," Rory said. "I admit, UNC Chapel Hill's school is very tempting but I don't think I could live in North Carolina."

"I don't think I'd make it out of there alive," Logan said.

"We're snobs, aren't we?"

"Bona fide," he confirmed. "I was also thinking about keeping another promise I made to you that I broke."

"What do you mean?" Rory asked.

"We should take a month or two before you start school and go to Asia," Logan said. "There's a lot to see, a lot to do, and we'll do it like backpackers."

"No 5 star hotels?" she asked. "Europe was dumb from 5 star hotels. I think Asia would be, too."

"I promise," he said. "You can even pay for your plane ticket. What do you think? We can spend some time together, take a long overdue trip, and you'll get some breathing room between working, moving, and school."

Rory smiled into the phone. "I think we lead a very charmed life, you and I."

"You know, I've made my peace with that," Logan said. "Hate to say it, Ace, but I've got to run. I've got a client dinner to get to."

"You're a wonderful boyfriend, Logan," Rory said. "Thanks for everything."

"You're worth even more," he said.

She smiled again, biting her lower lip. "Good night, Logan."

"Bye, Rory."

The job, the distance, it was all more enjoyable knowing it was coming to an end. Logan was right. It was easier to cope when one was doing something to alter a less than desirable situation. It was, perhaps, the idleness which had been so unbearable for Rory. As her time in DC began to dwindle, she was beginning to feel regret about passing up such a great opportunity. She knew she had more to do. 18 months on the campaign trail and another 18 months in the press room at the White House was a fantastic blurb on her resume before leaving to attend both of Columbia's masters programs in journalism. Was she crazy to leave this? No, it was somebody else's dream. She too often would get sucked into asking questions about things that didn't matter - the first kids' school, the contextual misspoken quote, partisan mudslinging. Other people took pleasure in diving into these issues. Rory never had. It felt petty.

Christopher wanted to bring Gigi to the nation's capital for Thanksgiving. Sherry didn't celebrate Thanksgiving in France, obviously, so it was always his holiday to have her to himself and he wanted his daughters with him, aware that Rory might not be able to get away. Rory appreciated the effort and was looking forward to spending some time with her sister, who was beginning to be able to hold down actual conversations about real topics. She was still, it was clear, her mother's daughter more than her father's but Rory hoped that might change with time.

"You've got a great house, Ror," Christopher said after the tour. The downstairs living room was set up as a bedroom for them as Logan would be arriving as well and they'd take the upstairs.

"It's good for me," she said, looking around herself. "I like it, it's quirky. It's like a full house, but only has one bedroom. Like they forgot anyone else might ever show up."

Christopher chuckled. "Do we need to let you get to work?" he asked.

Rory shook her head. "It's why I asked you and Logan to take late night flights," she said. "I could get my work done and at least have a couple of hours with you before I went to work again."

"Got any booze?" he asked. "I never get to drink with my daughter and that's a shame."

Rory laughed and beckoned him to follow her into the kitchen. "I do actually have food in my fridge, if you guys are hungry," she said. "And not just junk food, either."

"Lor's influence is finally wearing off, is it?" he asked.

"Not entirely," Rory said. "I do, however, find that I don't have the chronic tolerance for it that she does. She's a biological wonder. I have no idea how she functions."

"Me neither," Christopher agreed. "Gig, do you want some juice?"

She came tearing down the stairs from the upstairs. "Rory, I love your bedroom!"

Rory smiled. "Thanks, Gigi," she said, bringing a beer out of the fridge. "I like that I can see down into the living room. Maybe, if you wake up early enough, you can come upstairs and we'll throw stuff down on Dad while he's sleeping, what do you think?"

"Totally!"

"I think it's a shame you're too old to ground," Chris said, giving his elder daughter the stink eye.

She grinned at him. "Please, you never grounded me once."

"Were you ever even grounded?" he asked. "Oh, saintly daughter of mine."

"You know, I don't think so," Rory said. "Probably. But my punishment usually came in the form of having to talk about what I'd done or, worse, CLEAN. And I was in college before I got into any real trouble."

"See, if kids had any patience at all, they'd do what you did," Christopher said, accepting the beer with a nod of thanks. "Wait until they're too old to be punished to be jerks."

"Hey, everyone's got to test their boundaries and find their own limits," Rory said. "And I decided to draw the line at felonies."

"Live a little, would you?"

"I'll try," Rory agreed, smiling. "Shall we?"

"How's work? Christopher asked, following her towards the living room. "It seems to be all you do so I hope it's at least good for you."

"It is all I do, and the experience alone is invaluable," Rory said. "Even if it isn't my dream job. It's somebody's dream job and I'm definitely grateful for it. My editors are happy with my work, I've gotten practice in one of the most prestigious forums, and I've gotten to travel the world. I really couldn't ask for much more."

"That's great, Ror, I'm really glad to hear it," Christopher said. "When will you know about grad school?"

"Not until after the New Year, I don't think," Rory said. "Early admissions will only be confirmed after the January 15th deadline for standard admission has been counted, or something. I don't know. But I've got months of waiting on my hands."

"You're a shoo-in, kid," Christopher said.

"I worry that having taken time off of school will leave me less than prepared," Rory said. "And also puts me at a disadvantage because I already have working experience."

"That's ridiculous," he said. "It's not the same as an undergraduate degree. People return to school after beginning work in their field all the time. It's how you advance, get your foot in the door for the jobs you really want."

"I hope so," Rory agreed. "By the way, you guys weren't expecting, like, a home-cooked meal or anything, were you? I've never hosted Thanksgiving, and neither has Mom, and we both like it that way."

"I made reservations," Christopher said. "I'm not an idiot."

Rory smiled. "Good thinking," she said. "What's new with you? What's to tell?"

"Well, I do have some big news of my own," he said. "I've started seeing someone, and it's pretty serious."

"Really?" Rory asked with surprise.

"It's taken a few years but I think I might have gotten it right this time," he said.

"Tell me about her," Rory said. "How did you meet?"

"You'll laugh."

"Then thank you in advance," she said, grinning with anticipation.

"She's Gigi's nanny's sister," Christopher said. "Laura is her name. You'd love her. She owns a bookstore with a coffee shop in it."

Rory gasped. "Is she my real mommy?"

Christopher chuckled. "Not unless girls can start having kids at 8."

"Ah, a younger lady, is she?" Rory teased.

"Only 8 years younger," he defended himself.

"And only 8 years older than me," she said with feigned concern. He hung his head in defeat. "Relax, Dad, you were a child when you had me. It was always possible you might eventually date someone closer to my age than yours, especially since you freakishly refuse to age."

"She's smart," Christopher said. "She's also not the least bit concerned about marriage or kids. A really independent woman. Reminds me of what I loved about your mom, but we have an easier time together."

"Dad, that's awesome," Rory said. "I'm really happy for you."

He nodded, and lowered his voice. "I'll be talking to Gigi sometime after Christmas about moving her in," he said.

"Wow, that IS pretty serious," Rory said. "Why didn't you talk to me about it before? You could've brought her here."

"She's spending Thanksgiving with her family," Chris said. "They, by the way, are about the most functional family I've ever seen. It's no wonder she's so well-balanced."

"Do you even fit in with them?"

"Not in the least," he confirmed. "But they seem to like me well enough anyway."

"Does Gigi like her?" Rory asked.

"Absolutely," Chris said. "She's been around for the past couple of years, Laura has. She picks up Nina from our house sometimes. She's just around a lot more now."

"Wait," Rory said. "Nina the nanny? Is that for real?"

"This is what you want to focus on in this conversation?"

Rory laughed. "I'm sorry, proceed."

Over the course of the next few days, Rory got little sleep. There was too much to catch up on. This was what she had been missing, conversing with her father until the wee hours of the morning, Once Logan arrived the next evening, the three of them stayed up all night drinking beer and doing shots of whiskey. Gigi got to sleep in her big sister's "awesome" bed that night as the three of them occupied the living room. There was too much fun to be had, too much laughter to experience. This was what Rory was missing by working as much as she was. She could now put her finger on what had been omitted from her master plan for her career - her life. She had forgotten to plan for keeping the people she loved around. Who ever lay on their deathbed and said, "I wish I'd worked more." No, she knew she had to balance her priorities now.

Christmas was spent in Stars Hollow. It was a drive-by visit, but this time Rory wasn't upset about it. She knew there was an end to her hectic schedule, to missing huge chunks of the lives of the people who mattered to her. And Logan was there for all of it, even making the occasional appearance with his family, provided he had Rory with him when he did. The pair were an infallible defense against the barbs of Shira and the questions of Mitchum's, who had been remarkably silent on the matter of their reunion. Rory supposed, in Mitchum speak, that while silence was not necessarily a sign of approval, it was a noticeable absence of disapproval.

Rory gave her editors notice of her plan to leave in the early summer after receiving her acceptance into both Columbia programs of her choice. She tried to cover her elation, but she knew it must have come through. She would be starting graduate school shortly before turning 26, which seemed a bit late to her but she read that the median age was actually older and felt a bit relieved. She did, after all, have 3 years of solid working experience under her belt and was only making herself more marketable to the job of her choice, right?

By the time her last day at the White House came around, she was bursting with energy at the things to come. She'd spend a few days packing up in order to be out by June 15, when the new tenants were coming in. She'd spend 2 weeks luxuriously doing NOTHING in Stars Hollow with her mother, brother, and Luke. Then it was off to San Francisco to meet Logan, a more obvious choice for a launching point to Asia than were he to fly to the east coast to meet her. They'd arrive on July 4 and had no hotel reservations, no train tickets, no itinerary, just a general idea of things to see and a return trip ticket. It would be 4 weeks of aimlessly wandering the continent of Asia while movers took Logan's possessions across the country to a storage facility in New York. They'd fly directly from Tokyo to JFK on August 2nd and be given the keys to their new apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

This was IT. This was the start of the rest of her life as she would know it. That she knew. Her future was wide open and it was still exciting, but this time she got to have Logan. Rory sat amongst the boxes of her personal belongings, her pictures, the books, the letters, the school papers and articles she couldn't bring herself to throw away because she was proud of them. These were the mementos of a life lived well, fully, and still only just beginning.

These were her last days of living alone, she knew. She'd already been mailed a debit card linked to Logan's checking account, which was also hers. The lease contained both their names. The marriage and kids conversations had been successfully had and agreed upon. She would finish both graduate programs and they planned to marry the summer afterwards when she was 28. They'd give it a few years for her to get a career underway and then figure out sometime in their early to mid thirties when and where to raise their family. It gave Logan time to test the waters of his own career, find his footing, make his mistakes, and have his successes without worrying about failing a family.

This was it. Her life was part of someone else's now and it fit. It fit like a custom-made glove. It was comfortable, but thrilling. So when she arrived at her childhood home to begin her two week reprieve only to find Logan there waiting for her, as were her grandparents, her parents, Luke, and her siblings, there was nothing but joy in her response to the proposal that followed. He recreated the surprise, the public proposal, and left out the DAR. The ring was the same, but it was lovelier on her finger than in a sapphire box. The boy was the same, but he was now the man of her life. He wanted to start their lives together with a ring on her finger, even if the wedding band wouldn't be there for another 2 years. The marriage wasn't important, he said. Even the engagement wasn't. If she was there, if they were together, that was good enough for him. But he'd like to give her some bling if she wanted to accept it. If she wanted to accept him.

And she did.

* * *

_**Thanks to all for reading and replying! It was fun to alter the story as I'd originally written it and I hope it was enjoyed! If you'd like to read more, I welcome writing prompts and would gladly accept a challenge.**_


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